The Family
by VaingloriousHound
Summary: Rising from the ashes, freeing themselves from the chains of the past. Coursing though their bodies, a power to protect, a power to destroy. Family above all, Peace above all. They are stronger together for Chakra is thicker than Blood. They see the truth for it can't hide from them. They are The Family. NaruHina, SasuHaku
1. Chapter 1

**Naruto fanfiction**

 **The Family**

Summary: Rising from the ashes, freeing themselves from the chains of the past. Coursing though their bodies, a power to protect, a power to destroy. Family above all, Peace above all. They are stronger together for Chakra is thicker than Blood. They see the truth for it can't hide from them. They are The Family.

 **Chapter 1**

Today, it has been exactly 23 years. 23 years, since he lost everyone and everything he ever had. It took him nineteen out of those twenty-three to terms with it . He was getting old, he mused. While many wouldn't consider 44 old at all, he himself was getting tired. Some four years ago he had picked up work again. It had cost him a lot of willpower, doing what the family had done. But he did it anyway, to honor their memory. The memory he carried. And with their memory, he worked. He disposed of danger, menace and monster or whatever else threatened peace.

Of course he was hired for money. Still, if they couldn't pay he helped anyways. Just as Hana always did.

His Hana. His wife, his love, his everything. He shook his head. Dwelling on the past was not how the family worked. With his lone right arm, he pushed himself of the stone he had been sitting on. Before him was a pack of mutated tigers. Or whatever was left of them. Another job well done. Another threat neutralized.

He looked up in the sky, but his eyes were covered behind white cloth with intricate patterns on it. But by no means he was blind. No, not at all. He could see just fine. It was tradition, mandatory at that. A hawk was circling in the sky above him. He knew the bird. It was his own after all. He lifted his arm and the hawk dived down and landed on his forearm bracer. The reddish-brown bird stretched out his leg where a scroll was fastened.

 _The seal of Konoha?_ he thought. He hadn't been in the village in ages. The only ones who had really known him had died over a decade ago.

Sighing heavily he took the scroll and dismissed the bird.

 _Demon slayer Shiro,_

He felt the urge to roll his eyes at whomever had wrote this. The moniker had come up three years ago and shouldn't have reached the Land of Fire.

 _We, the council of Konoha, have deemed it necessary that a threat is to be exterminated from our village._

 _A demon in human form walks among the villagers and poses a threat, we, the Konoha council are unwilling to tolerate._

 _Your payment shall be whatever you deem fit._

 _The bird will lead you to the leaf._

 _The Council of Konoha._

Shiro looked up at his bird and the hawk started to fly to the south. He wanted to scoff. As if he wouldn't know where Konoha was. _Hidden Village my ass_. The white haired man shouldered his blade and bag and moved after the bird.

If a demon was endangering lives, he wouldn't stand by idly. A demon had to die. It was what he did, what the family did, and what he would continue doing to hi dying day. The others had done so, Hanna had done the same. Shiro knew he would follow them eventually.

* * *

It took the better of two days to reach the walls of Konoha.

He didn't want to be bothered by the guards at the gate so he activated the seals in his grey cloak and vanished. He always wondered how they actually worked, the one that had made them for him was just too much of a genious with the things to explain it in terms he could grasp. Far behind the gate, he reappeared on a water tower. His hawk was leading him towards the mountain with the faces etched into it. He sighed as he saw them but moved on. Dwelling on the past was wrong.

Shiro jumped through the trees of a great park. He saw children play on a playground and farther back he saw something he didn't like. A girl with short black hair was surrounded by kids, a little older than she was. He could hear her crying.

Just as Shiro was about to kick the shit out of the boys, a blonde kid, about the girl's age, burst out of a bush, and dragged the surprised girl with him, fleeing with her from the tormentors. The bullies seemed confused, the blonde had moved quite fast. Shiro smirked. He hoped that the blonde boy would protect the girl. He moved on, out of the park and over a training ground with a lake and on into a residential area. Behind the are was a red tower with a wooden roof. The hawk was circling over the tower. It

Shiro wasn't one to knock on doors so he choose to go for the open window. Apparently the council was in session.

"When is the slayer going to arrive?"

"His bird has been seen. He should be here any minute-" The bald man was interrupted by a blade that embedded itself into the big round table.

Everyone jumped when Shiro appeared besides his blade, a short sword, double edged.

"I'm here," he said in a cool voice, his eyes scanning the whole council, not that they could tell. All of these old man and the one woman were scared shitless. He sighed inwardly. But he was here for a job. "Where is your demon?"

"Ah... uh... Shiro, I presume?", one of them asked.

He didn't answer.

"Ah... ok, yes the target. Sakaki?"

The woman flinched and produced a picture she slid across the table to Shiro.

With a flick of his wrist the picture bounced of the table into his hand.

It was a blond boy with blue eyes, whisker marks on his cheeks. _Sign of possession? Remnants of a transformation?_ Shiro mused. The boy was 14, maybe 15 years old, a child, not even old enough to enter the academy in Konoha. Enrollment age was 16 since the Fourth had reformed the system.

"This is your demon?" he asked the council.

All of them nodded and affirmed his question.

"It shall be done," Shiro said, kicking the blades hilt, sending it to fly out of the window. Soon afterwrds Shiro too was gone.

"Well, that was weird."

* * *

Shiro stood on his blade that was sticking horizontally out of a wall across the street from the tower.

"Time to hunt," he said before vanishing.

Finding a blonde boy in Konoha was difficult. None Yamanaka fit the picture and and the three other boys did not have whisker marks neither did they have blue eyes. After about five hours he found another one. He could hear him talking.

"We lost him, Hinata. That guy's going to be on a fake trail for a while."

A female voice replied. "Uhm... T-Thank you! I... uhm... you didn't have to-!"

"Don't sweat it. I'm just glad I could help!"

"Oh... uhm... ok..."

"You are cute!"

"W-w-what?! N-no! I... uhm..."

"Haha! Calm down Hinata."

He put a hand on her head, ruffling her hair.

Hinata turned red enough to illuminate the alleyway.

 _Oh boy, I don't need my eyes to see she's head over heels_ Shiro mused.

"Oh! You... err... didn't tell me your name!" she finally managed to say after a lot of pocking her index fingers together.

"Oh yeah, sorry, I dragged you through half of Konoha and you didn't even know my name," the boy said sheepishly and rubbed the back of his head. "I'm Naruto Uzumaki!"

Shiro nearly fell of his blade.

An Uzumaki! Former family! Shiro wasn't aware that anyone had survived the massacre in Uzushiogakure. The job could wait. He needed to talk to the Uzumaki. He managed to _not_ throw his blade.

Instead he appeared in front of Hinata and Naruto with the sword on his back. Both teens jumped. Naruto in front of Hinata and Hinata into Naruto's arms.

 _Her poor heart_ Shiro thought, shaking his head.

"Who are you?" Naruto asked with his back to him and head slightly turned, Hinata still in his arms, passed out.

"Easy there, Uzumaki. I mean no harm," Shiro said, putting up his hand.

"Oh yeah? Many people told me that already. They always lie!"

"I do not lie. I _cannot_ lie. Therefore I _will_ _not_ lie, Uzumaki," Shiro said, his voice even. "You may want to sit her down until she wakes up."

Naruto turned his head back around.

He got as red as Hinata had when his face was only an inch from hers. Naruto placed her on a bank not far from their position and sat down besides her. Shiro didn't move. He didn't want to destroy what little trust the boy could bring up. When Naruto turned to face Shiro, the hunter's heart almost stopped. The whisker marks, the eyes and even the clothes. The boy was his target. And somehow he looked vaguely familiar, now that he thought about it.

He cursed inwardly. Now he _needed_ to use his eyes.

As Naruto walked up to the white haired man, he took off the cloth that covered his eyes. Shiro opened them and looked staright at the boy. There was no white in them, all black. The iris was solid gold with no pupil, instead there was a red, three pronged crown.

The moment Shiro made eye contact, he knew. All of it. Everything.

Naruto had stopped his approach when he stared into these weird eyes. He felt weak, unstable and transparent. The mans eyes drew on him, he couldn't stop looking into these mysterious eyes. Suddenly the man closed them and Naruto managed to shake his head.

"What was-?" he wanted to ask but the man in front of him started to cry. Naruto was confused. He was used to people being really aggressive around him or just very cold. That someone started to cry was new.

Shiro spoke, trying to suppress all the information in his head. "Naruto, you do not know your parents, but I do. You do not understand the name Uzumaki, but I do. You do not know why they hate you, but I do."

Naruto's eyes widened. "You liar!" he shouted and backed away.

Shiro shook his head. "I cannot lie, Naruto, my eyes don't allow it. I did indeed know your father and mother. Still... I wonder when Kushina got pregnant...?" Shiro got lost in his musings.

"Kushina? My mothers name?" Naruto stammered, eyes wide.

Shiro nodded. "But you look all like your father, well aside from the whiskers." The blonde nodded slowly.

"And my father?", he asked.

Shiro looked at Naruto with closed eyes for a second. "Your father was one of my best friends, but with the war, we got separated. But I was at his wedding. Kami he didn't sit still at all..." Shiro chuckled, "But I digress... Naruto. Your fathers name was Minato. Minato Namikaze. And yes, the fourth Hokage and hero of this village and all that," he said a little nonchalantly.

The blonde was hit by the realization that he did indeed look like a carbon copy of the fourth. Could that man be telling the truth?

"Boy," Shiro said after a long silence, "Tell me, do you want a family?"

"W-What?"

Shiro shook his head. Hopefully this was the right decision. "You heard me. I offer you a family."

Naruto frowned. "What does that mean?"

The boy was obviously distrusting, which was actually the right way to react to this situation. "It means that I owe your parents and my family. You are alone, Naruto, your mother was the same. But your father became her family and she was no longer. I offer you the same. I will be your family and you will no longer be alone. I will be your father," Shiro said and added quietly, "Hana would have wanted me to do this..."

"You mean you want to adopt me?" Naruto asked. He had been long enough in the orphanage and had never been adopted, no matter how much he wished for a family. Now, over a decade later, some stranger tells him who his parents were and offers to be his father, his family. Weird did not even come close to describe what he was feeling.

"Not really. You would be my son, by all means of the word," Shiro said, smirking slightly. They, the family, had played the same trick on his late little brother.

Naruto furrowed his eyebrow. "How is that even possible?" he asked.

Shiro chuckled. "That's how the family works. If I want you to be my son and you are willing to, it shall be. That is what makes the family _the Family_."

Naruto frowned. "I don't think I understand... I don't know why, but I want to trust you. Something tells me to. To have a family." He smiled. "I don't really know why... I just feel it's right!"

Shiro smiled as well. "That is how the family works, son." The word _son_ made Naruto's heart skip a beat. "Give me your hand."

Naruto nodded and closed the distance between them. When he put his hand in Shiro's, and intricate seal spread all over his arm. But instead of something uncomfortable, it was warm and felt right. The seal ran up to his heart and the same happened to Shiro. The seal encircled both their hearts and sucked a minuscule amount of blood straight out of it. The black ink turned red as the blood sped back to their joined hands. Once the two red pulsed collided, the seal turned white, blindingly bright.

Right then, something happened to Naruto. Then and there something changed. His eyes grew hot and heavy. His head pounded and his limbs ached while Shiro steadied him. Before he faded into the comforts of sleep he heard Shiro speak.

"Welcome to the family. I am Shiro, your father."

* * *

Hinata wasn't exactly having a good day until she was saved by this mysterious blonde boy. After a moment of peace, her caretaker, Ko, started to insist on her return, something she did absolutely not want. Her father would be furious and she didn't think she could take that.

So Naruto dragged her through half of Konoha and back in the effort of losing Ko. Once they had done so, she managed to tell him her name.

He called her cute! She was about to ask him if he wanted to eat something when suddenly that man appeared behind him. She jumped an managed to end up in Naruto's arms. Her poor heart could no longer take it, and she drifted of into the land of dreams. Now she was returning and blinked owlishly against the light. Apparently she was still in the same street she had "fallen asleep", sitting on a bench. She shifted and noticed the weight in her lap. Looking down, there was Naruto, sleeping soundly and snoring softly.

"Ah... so, a dream?" she asked aloud.

She jumped a little when her question was answered from behind her.

"No, not at all, little Lady." Shiro was standing behind the bench, leaning on his sword. "Though, if you treat it like one, my son here won't object," he smirked.

Turning quite red, Hinata coughed once. "So you are Naruto's father?" she asked.

Shiro grinned even wider. "Am now," he simply said and walked around the bench to stand in front of her. "And I understand, that you have taken a liking to him."

Right now, Hinata wanted to run and hide under some rock or even the waste bin right across the street, but the blond mop of hair in her lap stopped her from moving.

"I-I...N-Naruto is... I-I just met him, I-", she stammered but Shiro's laugh stopped her.

"Don't worry girl, I'm not one to tell, my son here ought to figure things out for himself. But...," his voice grew serious,"... if you want your thoughts to be your own, don't look into his eyes from now on."

That, of course, confused Hinata quite a bit. "W-What do you mean? About being his father and his eyes?"

Shiro looked at her intently through his bandages. "Hmmm... well... you will be part of the family, eventually so..." he whispered to himself before taking an elaborate bow.

"Let me introduce myself for now. I am Shiro, current head of the Family. And the boy that sleeps in your lap has just become my son. Now, mind you that I am not the one who fathered him, no. I knew the man actually, shame he died... Still, after just now, Naruto here is officially my son, by law and blood. And about his eyes, they are now, or in about a minute, like mine. _The Eye of Truth_. Wonderfully fitting name. I'm not going to elaborate all of it's abilities, but know that direct eye contact with his or my own eyes, would give away all your thoughts, feelings and knowledge, even memories. Because we do not want to know all this stuff and because we deem it polite, we wear these bandages to prevent such unintended intrusions. But we see just fine through them, but no longer would we intrude in another's mind by accident."

Hinata nodded along while Shiro explained with flashy gestures, all done with one hand. She had never heard of these eyes or this clan. And now Naruto was part of it? Blood adoption? Was that even possible? She had to cut her musing short when Naruto sat up abruptly, eyes still closed.

After turning his head, looking around he finally faced Shiro. "How am I supposed to sleep if I can see through my eyelids?"

Shiro chuckled. "All in due time, son. Now, won't you thank the nice lady for offering her lap as your pillow?"

Naruto jumped of the bench with a yelp, landing on the ground. He apologized so fast Hinata could only make out the words "Sorry!" and "My fault!". She couldn't hep but laugh at his embarrassment and soon enough, he too, was laughing. He was about to look at Hinata, when suddenly Shiro stepped in front of him.

"Hey-! What are you-?!" Naruto yelped. When Shiro stepped back again, Naruto was wearing the same bandages as his father. "Wow. Everything's... normal again," he said and looked around.

"Well, why do you think my eyes are hidden, kid?" Shiro laughed and clapped his shoulder.

* * *

"So... wanna go home?" Naruto asked after he saw Hinata to her compound.

Shiro nodded. "Let's." He started walking, but Naruto didn't. "What?" he asked, turning around.

Naruto smiled at him. "Thanks, dad."

Then and there, Shiro knew that the Family still had a future. He would do his utmost to make sure of that. Because Chakra is thicker than Blood.


	2. Chapter 2

**Naruto fanfiction**

 **The Family**

 **Chapter 2**

"Do you always travel like that?"

"Yes, I do. Why?"

"You... Who covers up all these holes you leave behind?"

"Ah, Well... Someone does? I don't know."

"Could it be that you are even more irresponsible than me? Aren't you supposed to be my father?"

"You wound me, son!"

"Sure."

Naruto and Shiro walked through the busy streets of Konoha. It had been a few weeks since Naruto was adopted and it showed in his appearance.

His jaw was more angular and very similar to Shiro's. The change had been a strangely painful process, leaving him with the feeling of his teeth rotting out of his mouth. Also, his hair was now white with the occasional golden lock. The whisker marks on his cheeks had faded, only visible if you really looked for them. Naruto now really looked as if Shiro was his father while he still obviously looked like Naruto with his spiky hair and still lightly visible whiskers. The hairstyle resembled Minato's to a t. That again gave him the appearance of a certain pervert that yet needed thrashing for not doing what he was supposed to do.

Hinata, for one, was delighted by his hair, something Naruto was very smug about.

His eyes made life a little more interesting. For one, he always had to wear a blindfold with special seals to it so he wouldn't accidentally make eye contact and steal that persons every secret. Also, the eyes of truth made it impossible for him to lie. That resulted in various instances where people, offended by Naruto speaking his mind, would glare harder at him as they had before. One of the first things Shiro taught Naruto, was that sometimes, it is better to keep quiet.

Father and son were on their way to the Hokage, as to enroll Naruto into the academy. The formerly blonde boy had decided to do as both of his fathers and his mother had done and become a great ninja, powerful enough to protect those he held dear.

With Naruto being fifteen, he'd enroll into the academy next year around this time, as it was now mid November. At first, Naruto was reluctant to enter, claiming that Shiro could train him, though when Hinata told him that she was worried about her performance in the academy, Naruto promptly claimed to be there with her. Shiro merely raised an eyebrow at his son at the sudden change in direction, keeping the merciless teasing for a later time. As they crossed the gate, the two guards stopped them.

"Who goes there?" one asked grimly while the other poised to strike.

Shiro sighed. The ninja in this village were way to lax. The man that spoke stood unbalanced. A mere kick to the knee would have ruined his stance, missing or not, the man would drop his guard.

The one that poised to strike with the katana at his hip was at least keeping a good stance. But if Shiro took a step forward, he could prevent the man from drawing his sword in the first place.

"We came to see the Hokage," Shiro stated evenly, pushing Naruto behind himself.

The man with the katana looked as if he was going to protest but in that moment, the door behind them opened, revealing the Hokage himself.

"I have been expecting you. Come, follow me," he told them and walked back into the building. Ignoring the two put-off guards, Shiro and Naruto followed after Hiruzen.

As it was custom, there were no chairs in the Hokage's office aside from the man's own. So Naruto and his father stood before the wooden desk filled with scrolls and stacks of paper. Taking of his hat, Hiruzen sank down into his chair.

"You have changed, Naruto." The boy could only nod at the man. He looked at Shiro, silently pleading for him to say something. At last, the white haired man spoke.

"As it stands, Naruto here is my son, legally and by blood through ancient law stated by the first Hokage. And as his father, I want to file for his entrance into the academy."

Hiruzen nodded slowly before looking at Naruto again. "Are you happy?" The question held worry and was not mocking or accusing. Naruto smiled widely before answering.

"Yes, I am."

The old Hokage sighed in relieve. "Good." He straightened a bit and looked decades younger to Naruto. "Of course I will grant Naruto here entrance to the academy. But, if you don't mind me asking, what about the blindfolds? Obviously, both of you can see just fine."

Shiro shrugged. "In essence, it's a family secret. Clan businesses, if you will. But we aren't as stuck up as certain others about it. Lord Hokage, we hide our eyes as not to see what we shouldn't see. These eyes see everything, through lie and illusion alike. These blindfolds we wear not for our protection, but for your privacy's sake." His voice had grown quite serious and the old Hokage looked just as serious for a moment before he smiled and pulled out a stack of papers from thin air.

"I've taken the liberty to prepare all the necessary forms," he told them and spread them out on the table before them. "All you need to do is sign them."

With official business taken care of, Shiro and Naruto went to buy him a more suitable attire and got him a sword not unlike Shiro's. After hearing that his mother was the one to teach Shiro how to use one, he wanted to learn as well.

And then there were seals. One of the things Shiro wasn't proficient at. He was able to produce the special blindfolds but the _Blind Truth Seal_ which he used was actually an eye technique and beyond storage scrolls Shiro couldn't really use anything else.

But Naruto, being an Uzumaki, from the moment he had seen the seals wanted to learn all the cool stuff.

In the months that followed, Naruto was taught most of his family's secrets, he learn to effectively use his eyes and of the possibilities that hadn't been unlocked before, not even by Shiro, who was the strongest ninja to hail of the family.

"The academy is serious business these days," Shiro said, "If you can't keep up, you're a goner." He scratched the back of his head. "Well, it's different for clan heirs but still, keep up son."

Naruto elbowed him. "Of course I will, with the training you gave me..." He winced at the memory. "My poor muscles..."

"Don't whine, Naruto. Get moving already or you'll be late!" Shiro pushed his son out of the door. "And don't forget!" he called after him.

"Yeah, yeah, Always cover the eyes, I got it! See you later, dad!" Naruto called back and ran of to the academy. He met Hinata halfway towards his destination.

"Morning Hinata!" he shouted as he zoomed towards her. Naruto started to skid several dozen meters in an attempt to slow down his chakra enhanced sprint but failed miserably an barreled past the startled girl into a stand full of cabbages.

"Naruto!"

While Hinata tried to extract her friend from underneath the lush green, the salesman was on his knees, crying for his lost goods in an overly dramatic way.

Being pulled to his feet, Naruto adjusted his blindfold and smiled at Hinata. "Hey there!" he laughed, "Ready for our first day?"

Hinata turned only the slightest bit red before nodding, not trusting her voice. She managed to yelp tough when Naruto pulled her along towards the academy.

When both of them would turn twenty, they would emerge from the academy as fully trained shinobi.

But is was a long way to go.

 **Year 1**

"But why would I want to know how to calculate the distance my enhanced kunai can cover before it's not lethal anymore? In the field I can't just sit down and measure the distance according to shadows and stuff!"

"It's so you understand the principals behind your throwing."

"I know that it doesn't fly forever, isn't that enough?"

 **Year 2**

"Is it necessary for us to do this? How often would we even have to seduce a woman?"

"Quiet! We're getting to the good part!"

"Kiba, how is it good to bleed for a whole week? I mean, respect on surviving that and all... Wait, what does that have to do with seducing them?"

"You learn this in order to deal with such occurrences accordingly."

"Okay sensei... What's the small cloth roll for?"

"Practical exam."

 **Year 3**

"-and that's how you effectively torture a man into insanity."

"I will have nightmares about this... No, Hinata, _that_ we won't practice."

"Hold up, you mean you practiced the other stuff?!"

 _ **THUMP!**_

"You moron! Look what you did, Kiba! She fainted!"

 **Year 4**

"Hinata?"

"Yes?"

"What was the purpose of this again?"

"Sharpen our stealth and assassination skills."

"Okay. I just don't understand how this is helping with that."

"Just put it in, Naru."

"Hina..., did you just purr?"

"M-m-m-maybe...?"

"Wow."

"W-what?"

"You didn't faint..."

"Uhm... yes... will you put it in now? It's getting uncomfortable like this, holding it open."

"Oh sure... uhm... there?"

"A-a little lower!"

"Aha!"

"..."

"What, that's all? I thought there would be an explosion or maybe a-"

 **BOOOOM!**

"That's more like it! Though I still don't understand why we would ever assassinate someone through an air vent with a bomb like that. That isn't stealthy at all."

"You nearly dropped it in the wrong vent, Naru. Holding the lattice up was getting very straining."

"Hey, I was distracted by the purring! Ask me to put it in any other hole you hold open and I'll be twice as good, believe it!"

"Meep!" _**THUMP!**_

"Ah... I overdid it... Medic!"

...

Yes, definitely a long, long way to go. A very long way. This was going to be terrible...


	3. Chapter 3

**The Family**

 **Chapter 3**

 **A/N: We're moving this forward in the plot line guys! On with the graduation! I'm using an OC here, Ren from Flashing Light, which you perhaps didn't read. Don't worry, it's not necessary to anyways.**

With a grunt he deflected the palm aimed at his shoulder, the familiar stinging sensation only lingering in his wrist for a moment until the newly activated seal forced Hinata's chakra back out of Naruto's body. The blonde flickered a few steps away from his best friend and drew his sword, a long double edged blade that Shiro called a type of gladius. It gleamed nearly white in the afternoon sun as Naruto sank into a low stance, sword held behind him. In response to that Hinata widened her stance and rolled up her sleeves. With a soft grunt her forearms and hands glowed a faint blue and she charged forward.

Smirking at the determination in Hinata's blazing Byakugan Naruto swiped his blade at the charging girl. The Hyuuga lifted a hand and actually managed to block the sharp blade with her chakra coated arm. But then Naruto let go of his sword and Hinata was confused for just a moment.

The blade had connected solidly with Hinata's forearm and when Naruto let go of it, the handle of the weapon was propelled out of Naruto's hand as Hinata's block pushed the blade of the sword back. The weapon twirled, handle approaching Hinata's unprotected face.

Bending at an awkward angle she let the pummel pass over her - only to gasp when Naruto's hand appeared from seemingly nowhere on the weapon at the opposite side from the space he had occupied less than half a second before.

Hinata never managed to anticipate when Naruto would use one of his eye techniques. There was never any indication in his chakra flow around the eyes that he used the _Sword Flicker_ , which caused him to appear at the handle of his sword. Naruto was unable to land on it or with anything else than his right hand. Shiro used the technique to travel, appearing on the weapon handle. Naruto had once told her that the technique inspired his birth father to his _Flying Thunder god Technique._ According to Naruto, using the technique required him to see the hidden paths. Holes and connections in reality itself. They were everywhere and led anywhere, infinite in number and invisible to all but the _Eye of Truth_. But inside Naruto was unable to orientate himself so he and Shiro used the handle of their weapons and placed a beacon on it which they could find even in this strange paths between reality.

Hinata carried such a mark right above the heart. She had agreed to taking it after their first in-training mission which was also the mission at which they were supposed to have their first kill. Every student had this mission. It was supervised by instructors and a few high ranking ninja to assure that the ninja-hopefuly wouldn't die out there. During their mission Hinata got cornered and nearly kidnapped for her eyes. Had Naruto not slaughtered them in a fit of rage... she didn't want to think about it. They agreed that they would need to reach each other as fast as possible at some point so Naruto and Shiro developed a special mark to place on her. The seal was directly linked to her eighth gate, the gate of death. Being the last gate and the most powerful, it was directly connected to her heart an her life force. With special precautions, Hinata now had the ability to open the eighth gate once without suffering from the loss of her life. Afterward the mark would simply seal the gate once again. That, mind you was considered a clan secret. Granting someone the ability to open the eight gate without dying... It would be madness.

Hinata was sworn to secrecy by the very same mark. It didn't actually do anything but reverse summon her to Naruto. Without any clothes on. That had been Shiro's idea. Why not reverse summon her in the first pace? It only works once and the mark would fade from her, possibly making it impossible for her to receive another. Anyhow... Where were we? Ah yes. Ehem!

But she didn't gain any abilities out of it. No, once she would open the gate, the mark above it would use the gate's power and tear open a path between reality and she would be sucked into the dimension in between. There, with the mark still on her, Naruto could simply find her and bring her to him.

Also, Naruto could simply teleport to her in the same way he moved to his sword. Problem was that his hand would appear upon the mark. Let's just say that the test runs were embarrassing for Hinata.

Back to the fight!

She cursed as the blade, which was now perfectly aligned with her body, was pushed downward. But it halted before it could cleave her in half and she dropped unceremoniously on her butt.

"Halt!" shouted a teacher from outside of the small arena they had fought in, "Winner, Naruto Uzumaki!"

There where some cheers, mainly from the other kunoichi present, but Naruto was reaching down to lend Hinata a hand. She pouted playfully at him and tried hard not to blush. They stood side by side, waiting for the result that they cared for and Hinata reached for Naruto's hand.

The teacher with the scar over his nose, Iruka, continued. "Passing grade..." Hinata squeezed Naruto's hand. They needed to pass this one to move to the final exams.

"Both of you!" he exclaimed. "Congrats you two! Please leave the arena and get back to the classroom!"

Naruto gathered Hinata in his arms, spinning her at ninja-speed (so damn fast that they caused a small whirlwind), eliciting a squeal from the girl.

"Naru! Put me down!" The pet name was lost in the wind but Naruto slowed his spinning anyways.

"As you command, Hime!" He laughed when she blushed. Actually he was just laughing so no one would see him blushing just as furiously.

Their classroom was basically a huge training hall. A small arena, training dummies and a library filled with medical books, anatomy and politics. Math and writing was of course also there but just what they really needed. Medical care, first aid and human anatomy was absolute need to know for every ninja. Dressing wounds and knowing where to strike was - aside from stealth - a ninja's bread and butter.

Naruto and Hinata weren't the first to finish their taijutsu exam. Sitting in their chair's were Ren (the very same from Flashing Light) and Kiba, who had been opponents in their fight. Ren won by a margin, pulling off a move Naruto had trouble seeing correctly, and knocked Kiba out of his collaboration attack with his ninken Akamaru. The poor puppy was now being treated in the infirmary.

Naruto waved at Ren, tapping his sword with the other hand. Ren smirked and returned the gesture. "Who won?" the black haired boy asked them.

"Naru..-to won, couldn't keep up with the sword." Hinata blushed at nearly calling Naruto by his pet name.

"Shame, I thought your Gentle Fist would mow the moron down," Kiba barked at them, glaring at Naruto who returned the glare. It had no effect however, because of Naruto's blindfold.

Grumbling Naruto sat down besides Hinata, by far closer than necessary if only to aggravate Kiba. Not that Hinata minded.

Soon the rest of the class stumbled in. Notably absent were Ino and Sakura. It was easy to guess that they had failed the taijutsu test. Both were exceptional at medicinal techniques and quite good with the senbon needles but their taijutsu was simply not up to the newly set standard. Sasuke gave a nod in Naruto's direction who returned the nod in equal coolness, imitating Sasuke as best as he could. Expression and all. It caused Hinata to giggle just as Iruka entered the class.

"We have six fails this year!" he announced, "That is the smallest number in the last decade! I am proud of all of you!" Walking up to the used and worn looking blackboard he flipped it around, showing them the questions for the written part of the exam. "And now, put some distance between yourselves and begin the test! You have 20 minutes!"

There was a collective gasp when the time limit was announced. There were more than 60 questions on the broad and none of them seemed all that easy to answer. Groaning Naruto sent a last encouraging look, completely useless with his blindfold, at Hinata and began writing.

"I swear to kami my hand is going to come off!" Naruto whined as they walked out of the classroom.

No one had failed the test and it was now time for the chakra portion of the exam. A jutsu portion was somehow not included, given that some clans, like the Hyuuga, only taught their own techniques and no elemental jutsu whatsoever. So the teachers just tested how good one could utilize their chakra with things like water walking or shape manipulation. Of course jutsu also counted if you could use one.

"Shush you big baby," Hinata chided and quickly swiped a green glowing palm over Naruto's throbbing hand. The slight pain vanished instantly.

He beamed at her and, in a brave moment, used on of his eyes other abilities (projecting short lived but powerful genjutsu) and pecked Hinata's cheek. The girl stumbled forward with her head as red as a Sharingan and Naruto had to catch her. He couldn't stop laughing and, just like Hinata, simply couldn't stop blushing.

The training field in front of the academy was just a wide grass field with some training dummies at the far end of it's reach anda small body of water. Currently Iruka and the other teachers waited there for them. Their names were called out at random so no one could somehow have planned something. Like rigging the field or laying bombs. That had happened before. Iruka still told the stories.

Ren went first. He drew his sword and infused it first with wind chakra and then with lightning chakra. The he used the body flicker technique in extremely quick succession (for a genin) and finally pulled of the Lightning Release: Thunder and got a pass from Iruka an the others.

Sasuke was next, performing his great fireball and also body flickering. Everyone was surprised when he pulled of a water jutsu as well. He got a pass with that.

Hinata was up and she seemed nervous so Naruto slapped her back in encouragement, aiming at her lower back and hitting far lower than intended. Hinata squealed and jumped an enormous height straight into the air. Everyone looked on in amazement while Naruto stared at his hand and turned so red he casted a genjutsu to hide his blush.

Coming down at high speed Hinata impacted with the surface of the small lake and managed to stand on it without even causing a splash. One hand held her backside and the other covered her face in embarrassment. After Iruka coughed Hinata managed to gather herself and once again covered her arms in chakra. Like that she walked over to a tree and placed her palm flat against it. After a second there was a palm shaped hole going straight through the tree, only Naruto saw the chakra burst through the tree from Hinata's hand. After that she also used the body flicker and forced Naruto to demonstrate her 128 Palms technique on him. Performing a water jutsu - just to show of - at Naruto she turned to Iruka expectantly. For that she got a pass and a pained moan from Naruto as he reopened his chakra pathways.

They tuned the rest of the examination out, sitting comfortable under a tree with Ren.

"So, they'll put us on three man teams, right?" the boy asked.

Hinata nodded. "Yes, that's how it works. But that's what bothers me..."

"You're afraid of splitting?" Naruto asked and leaned over to her, resting his head close to hers.

She nodded. "I don't understand why we worked as two man cells for four years only for some to get split now."

"Well," Naruto sighed, "We can only hope now, can't we?"

Now it was Naruto's turn. He walked casually into the field before simply disappearing from view as if he had never been there in the first place. It was just a genjutsu, the _Hidden Truth_ , the most basic genjutsu that Naruto's eyes could cast. It simply rendered him invisible and inaudible. But most didn't know that. Iruka and the teachers sensed the genjutsu but didn't react. After all the displayed body flickers from before, everyone, even Hinata, looked around so spot where Naruto would show up. Suddenly something warm and soft brushed against Hinata's lips just as she decided to activate her Byakugan to look for Naruto.

With a high pitched squeak Hinata jumped back as she saw through the genjutsu and and came to face Naruto as he just pulled away from the small kiss he had planted on her lips. When she realized what had just transpired Hinata, for the first time in three years, fainted on the spot.

 _"Oh my god!"_ , Naruto thought to himself, _"Why did I do that?!"_ Actually Naruto knew all to well why he just couldn't withstand the urge to kiss Hinata. He just hadn't figured out how to act upon these feelings correctly. Slapping her butt and kissing her while being invisible didn't count as correct in Naruto's book.

The young ninja appeared on the small pond, having used the body flicker to get there. Taking a deep breath and fighting the lingering sensation in his lips, Naruto drew his sword. Like Ren, he coated it in wind and lightning chakra but then also combined the two at once causing his blade to shimmer in white light. He thrust the sword straight at a log which simply split in half without any indication of physical contact. Quickly running though the required hand seals, but with one hand, Naruto performed Wind Release: Great Breakthrough at a tree close to the lake, uprooting it. That was enough to pass him.

In the end everyone passed. Kiba and Shikamaru did so just barely and Shino passed just as easily as Naruto and Hinata had. Kiba had the tree walking down but water walking wasn't his forte, luckily his clan jutsu and two fire jutsu made up for that. Sai simply threw so many ink related jutsu around, he got a pass without even moving. Now all that was left was to await the team placements.

 **The Eye of Truth**

"Of course you passed!" Shiro laughed and slapped his son over the head. "I would have carved your eyes out of you didn't." He didn't loose his jovial tone while saying that.

Naruto took a step back, for good measure he hid behind Hinata. The girl had invited father and son for a celebration meal at the Hyuuga compound. Dressed in formal wear it had taken Naruto 24 seconds to stop gawking at her. Shiro crafted a genjutsu that would let him relive that moment whenever he denied he did that.

Just as Naruto, dressed in a sleek black kimono with the Uzumaki swirl in white on his back, looked over Hinata's shoulder at his laughing father Hiashi Hyuuga opened the door panel behind him. "Good evening my friends." The man inclined his head. "Pleas, do come in. Dinner shall be served soon."

Naruto managed not to wilt under Hiashi's not so subtle glare at his close proximity to the man's daughter.

Ever since Naruto had meet Hinata, the girl had developed exceptionally. She was one of the strongest fighter's her age, only ever defeated by her older cousin Neji. In the four years they had spent at the academy Naruto was a frequent guest at the Hyuuga household. The effect the boy had in the heiress was much appreciated, as was his obviously growing affection for her. The fact that he possessed these extremely unique eyes and was part of the Uzumaki clan as well as what they referred to as "The Family" had him in the position of the optimal suitor for Hinata. Not that the two young adults knew of these thoughts.

Shiro and Hiashi had already had lengthy talks about what could become of these two. Because, if anyone married anyone married into the family a similar thing to the blood adoption happened. The spouse would gain the eye of truth with the addition of any other special ability they already possessed and any bloodline ability existent within the partner. This ability would be reflected back onto the original family member. Meaning, if Naruto was to marry Hinata, she would gain the eyes with the addition of the Byakugan's abilities and so would Naruto. Their children would then also posses these eyes. The two fathers talked a lot about this. The Hyuuga wouldn't really loose they Byakugan for it would become something else and a member of their clan would be in possession of completely new eyes. All in all the elders would probably approve of a courtship between the two of them.

Not that Naruto would have let a disapproval stop him.

Dinner was a pleasant affair. It had taken Hinata many tedious hours of etiquette training with Naruto to achieve at the regal level he was at now. She just told him that he would need such skills in covert ops. He was an eager learner after that.

"Now," Hiashi spoke up, "What do the two of you suppose about the team creation?"

Hinata hummed, her posture only ever so slightly leaning towards Naruto. "I am quite certain that me and Naruto will be on the same team. The two of us and Sasuke and Ren graduated highest this year."

Naruto nodded. "I'd be fine with Ren, he's a nice guy and probably the fastest genin in the village. He's always so silent when not spoken to but not as broody as Sasuke always is."

"There is a chance we are teamed up with either Kiba or Shino," Hinata said, "We'd make a great tracking team. My eyes and of course your's coupled with Kiba's nose or Shino's bugs would make a great reconnaissance team."

"Yeah... Oh, I figure we could be placed with Shikamaru as tactical strike team. He's kinda brilliant with plans and our stealth could make us a quite deadly with his shadows."

Shiro watched his son and surely-soon-to-be daughter in-law discuss their possible teams with a fond smile. Naruto was now twenty years old, Hinata was to be twenty in two months time. They had grown incredibly over these four years. Naruto was as tall as he himself, a bit more than 190 cm, and Hinata came up to his chest. Naruto's white hair had grown out a bit, framing his face like Minato's always did with a small ponytail that Hinata always played with when no one was around. Hinata's hair though were incredibly long, reaching below her waist. A shimmering waterfall of raven hair, as Naruto had once called them when he got himself drunk.

Physically they sure changed a lot aside from just height. Naruto was a ninja. That meant he was so damn ripped that you could use his abs as a washboard, something that Hinata once said when she got drunk. Hinata on the other hand was, ehm... well, she had these, err.. Okay, fine. She was beautiful. Naruto, if slightly tipsy from either alcohol or sleep, could manage to drool all over himself just by looking at her. Having filled out in all the right places Hinata was, to Naruto, the most beautiful kunoichi in all of the elemental nations. He needn't see every woman to know that none could ever top Hinata. He was very fierce in defending that standpoint, even when not drunk or under a genjutsu.

"Thank you for your hospitality, Lord Hiashi," Naruto told the host, bowing low. The man chuckled.

"Naruto, we've known each other for years now. And while I appreciate etiquette it is unnecessary when we aren't with the elders," Hiashi said, placing a hand on Naruto's shoulder and pulling him up.

"Of course," Naruto smiled back at the man who returned it and turned to the boys father. Naruto was now allowed a rare private moment with Hinata.

Not being one to hesitate, he just grabbed her hand and brought her knuckles to his lips, kissing them softly. "It was a wonderful evening, Hime. I recognized your cooking." He smiled at her flustered face. "You didn't need to cook just because of us."

Hinata nodded, just a little dazed. After a second or so she got a hold of herself and pulled Naruto closer to her with their still joined hands and hugged him.

"I enjoyed the evening very much as well, Naru," she whispered into his ear, "And I love cooking for you. Only you."

Her words heated not only Naruto's face but his whole body. He gulped and squeezed her a little tighter before brushing his lips over her cheek to the point of their noses touching. They stared into each others eyes and moved in to finally, truly kiss each other-

Hiashi cleared his throat.

Naruto moved on pure instinct, like a startled animal, as the killing intent hit him. He vanished on the spot, reappearing on the other side of the room where is sword had leaned against a wall and just a moment passed until Hinata occupied his lap. Sword raised before both of them, Naruto frantically scanned the room for any danger. And aside from the death glare Hiashi sent his way, he found nothing.

"Ah.." Naruto said sheepishly, "I, uh, it was nice staying here. Thanks for the meal!" His eyes lingered on Hinata's lips when he spoke his last sentence of the evening before Hiashi went to retrieve the family sword. Recognizing the danger his testicles were about to be in, he did the one thing a man could do at that moment.

He ran for his life screaming like a little girl with Hiashi close behind him, swing the sword with a vengeance.

Hinata was left sitting there, a dreamy look in her eyes.

Shiro shook his head. If his son ever wanted this to work out, he needed to learn a few important things. One being, what Hiashi can't see, won't have his balls at stake. Well, seems the boy was going to learn the hard way. Shrugging, Shiro left the building.

 **A/N: Come on guys! Suggest a team! Gimme those reviews!**

 **Well anyway, you see that my academy is veering quite a bit from cannon. Only real ninja get out of that one and not some snot nosed brats that brawl more than they assassinate. They are ninja after all so no large scale battles but more sneaking, trapping and mind games.**


	4. Chapter 4

**The Family**

 **Chapter 4**

 **A/N: A little shorter this time. The next chapter covers the whole Wave mission.**

"Team 7! Sensei: Kakashi Hatake! Rooster: Uzumaki Naruto! Hinata Hyuuga!-"

Hearing this wasn't exactly a surprise to them. Still, Naruto hugged Hinata in excitement. Now for the third member "- and Sasuke Uchiha!"

The third team member gave no visible response aside from glancing at his new team mates.

"Ah, we got the ball of sunshine," Naruto deadpanned.

"Don't be rude now, Naru," Hinata admonished him, "It is quite the logical decision. Think about it. All three special eyes of Konoha in one team."

That did indeed make a lot of sense to Naruto.

"Fine," he sighed, "Let's just hope that sensei's gonna be an ok guy."

Those feeble hopes were mercilessly crushed by three hours of waiting.

Hinata's Byakugan was active, scanning their surroundings for their sensei. Naruto put layer upon layer of the most evil genjutsu he could come up with on the classroom door and Sasuke was hell bent on burning a hole into his desk with his gaze alone.

When the door finally opened several things happened at once.

Hinata shrieked and jumped a foot into the air and attaching herself to the ceiling, the man that entered through the door had simply appeared in her field of vision with a book well known to the Hyuuga clan. Icha-Icha paradise, the latest issue. She had caught a glimpse of an especially steamy passage.

Naruto, who still layered his genjutsu upon the door, received the backlash of casting to many illusions at once and the being interrupted. He flipped over backwards and screamed: "Not the sword! It was just a kiss!"

Sasuke had the misfortune of sitting too close to the backlash of the genjutsu. While not being hit by a genjutsu, a wave of solid chakra rolled at him and pushed him away. As unlucky as he was, Sasuke had been sitting besides an open window through which he now tumbled.

Kakashi Hatake opened the door, felt the wave of chakra roll off, spotted a raven haired young woman sticking to the ceiling like an angsty cat, a blonde teen avoiding an imaginary sword while protecting his testicles and just caught a glimpse of raven hair that fell out of the window.

"My first impression: You guys are weird."

 **The Eyes of Truth**

Sitting on the roof of the academy the three young adults faced their sensei. A tall man, half of his face hidden beneath a piece of black cloth, his headband pulled over one of his eyes. His hair were a spiky silver that seemed to defy gravity with its vertical position upon his head.

"So, I supposed introductions are in order," Kakashi said, leaning on the railing in a completely disinterested posture.

Naruto raised an eyebrow but nodded. The man was supposed to have nay and all information on them, even the psychological evaluation they did once a year.

"Okay, so I'm Naruto Uzumaki, 20. I like training, my family and my precious people. I absolutely loath liars, hypocrites and those who break their promises. One day I want to become head of the family, like my father, and Hokage, like also my father." He paused and glanced at Hinata. Managing to keep his composure at the impure thoughts that came to his mind he looked back at Kakashi. "Anything else?"

Their sensei shook his head. "Nah, that's all I needed. Future wife, you're next."

Naruto was absolutely stony face and Hinata didn't react at all. That caused Kakashi, who had yet to open his lone eye, to take a peek. For whatever reason Kakashi felt that he had just stepped on really thin ice. Naruto stood up to his full height, which was a bit bigger than Kakashi actually, and took two steps forward and invaded Kakashi's personal space. One hand moved up to his blindfold.

He actually growled at him. "You will _not_ imply anything further, are we understood?" He pulled the blindfold off, eyes still closed. "What is between me and Hinata is _only_ between me and her. If you are trying to abuse whatever relationship you _think_ we have in the upcoming test, I will _see_ to your end."

And then Naruto cracked an eye open.

He sat back down without another word and Hinata continued the introduction.

"I'm Hinata Hyuuga, 19. I like spending time with my family, gardening and medical jutsu. I dislike the unjust, the liars and prejudices of any kind. My dream is to keep pushing for unity in my clan and protect my precious people."

Kakashi was only half listening, he knew the basics about his team. But what he hadn't known was where this violent reaction of Naruto had come from. The possible engagement between the Hyuuga heiress and the heir to the family was common political knowledge. They had stumbled around each other like any couple in love when he had observed them. But there seemed to be more, was it a facade? In a ninja village it shouldn't surprise him but then again, such a facade should not have fooled him either. _If_ and only if it was a facade then it was used to hide the real relationship between them. So question was, what would they need to hide? What could they be that there was a need to hide it and instead play idiot couple to everyone? That needed further investigation.

"Emo, you're up," he intoned to Sasuke. The boy grunted in annoyance but spoke anyways.

"Sasuke Uchiha, 20. Likes... not really. Dislikes... not really either. Dreams... well, restore my clan and bring justice to the guilty."

Of course he would say that, but Kakashi expected something more along the lines of 'wanting to kill Itachi' or the likes. Strange.

"Fine, meet me tomorrow at training ground seven at 8 am sharp." And with that he vanished.

The three ninja just sat there in silence until Sasuke decided to speak up.

"So," he said, "You played all of us, didn't you?"

The two of them didn't respond. Hinata activated her Byakugan and scanned the surroundings.

She sighed. "Come on out, sensei. I figured your way of hiding when you first used it."

Kakashi stepped out from behind the big water tank on the roof. "Interesting, I didn't think you'd see though it."

"I didn't," Hinata confessed, "Naruto did."

Kakashi just nodded and sauntered over towards them. "Now then," he said, "What is this all about? Why would you try and scare me away?"

Naruto sighed. He didn't want to deal with that now. Then again, people would ask questions at some point if the genjutsu on Hinata's eyes would fail.

"Fine." He stood up and placed a seal in the middle of the roof. After a strange whizzing sound the noises of the village around them died down and everything was silent.

"In essence me and Hinata are married."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow but said nothing. Kakashi narrowed his eyes though.

"It is forbidden for ninja in training to marry, even more so for clan heirs," he told them.

Naruto nodded grimly and Hinata spoke up. "That is exactly our problem. Us marrying was... more or less an accident. We wanted to but not at that very moment."

"My eyes just didn't care," Naruto huffed, pushing a stray lock of hair out of his face. "I'm sure you know about the infiltration and espionage training from the second academy year," he asked Kakashi.

The man nodded. "Of course. You are trained to blend in and do anything necessary to obtain the information you are to retrieve." His eye widened only a little and he whispered again, "Everything."

Naruto nodded again. "Aye, everything. When we came to the point where we were taught to use our body to gain information from a target that couldn't be harmed..., well you know how that training goes. Sex is just another way for a ninja to gain information and no ninja would leave that year as a virgin."

Understanding came to both Sasuke and Kakashi, tough it wasn't everything they managed to understand.

"Me and Hinata decided, that if we had to loose our virginity, we would loose it to the other. That isn't uncommon, people would like at least a little comfort at their first time and a familiar face does just that." Naruto sighed. "I loved Hinata back than already, I just became acutely aware of it at the beginning of sex education and Hinata loved me, well, since we met five years ago. So that wasn't a problem. My eyes were what caused the problem."

"How so?" Kakashi asked.

Naruto turned to Hinata, his hand caressed her cheek and she sighed, leaning into the touch. "I could just show you."

The air around Hinata's head rippled slightly. Suddenly Kakashi and Sasuke could feel an enormous amount of chakra filling the air as the genjutsu fell of Hinata's eyes.

There was a blindfold, just like Naruto's with the same seals on it.

Sasuke was confused, he didn't know all too much about Naruto's eyes but that really looked like Hinata had the very same.

"Explain," demanded Kakashi. That was interesting.

"You see, for a member of the family marriage is kinda absolute. A member of the family has to look into the eyes of their spouse-to-be and let them look back, truly see them. If they find that the love is still strong, the eyes do their thing. Problem is that this union is really endangering the eviction of the caged bird seal. If Hinata's marrying me the legal way there is no need for it. Traditions would be broken and Hiashi would go in for the kill." Naruto rubbed his eyes through the bandage.

Hinata, only a little red in the face, continued. "During... during our... When we had sex..., Naruto's blindfold slipped of. I got lost staring at his eyes and... and I suddenly knew everything about him. Absolutely everything. I could feel it was the same for him, that he knew all of me, that he still wanted all of me and I wanted him back."

Smiling, Naruto put his hand on Hinata's. "And because these eyes of mine are somewhat sentient, let me explain that later, the marriage happened right then and there. The seal formed, blood was drawn, abilities exchanged and enhanced and boom, Hinata had the same eyes as me and was effectively my wife."

Kakashi sighed. Oh dear, aside from the political scandal of such a young marriage and it's consumption it was also kind of illegal since they weren't officially ranked in the shinobi system. "Okay, fine. I kinda get that. But what was with the violent reaction to my teasing?" He nearly shuddered remembering all the possibilities of death that Naruto had displayed him in under a second.

Rubbing his head sheepishly, Naruto laughed. "That was a mishap, kind off," he said, "This marriage isn't normal. Threatening it or trying to use it causes a very violent stroke of anger in the spouses. My father once murdered 67 people at once because they all displayed the mere thought of violating his wife." His hidden gaze narrowed on Kakashi. "So I suggest you do not try and use this knowledge in any stupid way."

"I wouldn't dare," he chuckled. "I understand your situation. The law that forbids marriage before graduation was made so that there were no issues in the development. But as I see it, this made Hinata and you stronger, did it not? Your father once told me about, well your other father and his family so I kind of know how this works."

Naruto and Hinata sighed in relief. Then the white haired boy turned to Sasuke. "Is that an issue to you?" he asked seriously.

Sasuke regarded him for a while before shaking his head. "No, it is not. You made her stronger, made this team stronger. As long as you don't shag in the tent next to me it's cool."

Naruto bellowed a laugh and hit Sasuke over the shoulder, who smirked in return. Hinata just turned a little red but smiled as well.

"My second impression: This is going to be good."

 **The Eyes of Truth**

Going on missions was not something Shiro enjoyed all that much. But as a jonin in Konoha such things were required. The mission was supposedly easy, but would take about a month. Because the other genin teams had yet to be named at the older ones were all gone on missions it fell to Shirou and his genins to escort Tazuna back to his country and oversee his bridge being built.

Ah yes, Shiro was indeed a jonin sensei. How Naruto didn't hear the announcement was beyond him. After all his team was Team 1, the very first to be announced. He shook his head and looked back at his three charges.

Ren was an incredible swordsman. He was so much like his father, it was seriously scary. The man had been one of his best friends. Training him could be interesting.

Sai was strange. There was nothing more to say. His tendency to try and aggravate his teammates was irritating but more so confusing. Ren didn't let it affect him and neither did Shikamaru but it needed to stop at some point.

Shikamaru was a brilliant mind, his fighting was passable but he could work with his clan's techniques. Using it in collaboration with Sai's creations from ink an ren's one-hit kill techniques they were a pretty good assassination an infiltration team.

Anyhow, the mission was B-rank so at the normal level new genin took. The normal graduate had 50 D-rank and 3 C-rank during the academy time. The C-ranks were always supervised during the academy time and in a relatively controlled environment.

The way he remembered it, Naruto had taken his first kill quite well. It hit Hinata a little harder, her target had been a girl a year younger than her. Ren was shaken but Naruto had talked him through it. They had been friends ever since, like brothers just a little more distant. Sasuke had no visible reaction to his kill which was not surprising, seeing as he had to witness blood and murder before when his clan died.

"We will set up camp here!" he called out and his three genin vanished to secure the area. He nodded to himself and began unsealing some tents. Tazuna was breathing a little hard, sitting on a tree stump.

"You are hiding something," Shiro suddenly said. Tazuna flinched so violently he nearly fell of the stump.

"W-what are you talking about?!" he stuttering in a slightly panicked tone. Shiro's eye picked up on the increased respiration and his accelerated heartbeat, the way his pupils widened and his hands clenched.

"You know exactly what I'm about, builder. This mission- you didn't give us all the detail on it. You look around you like a hunted animal. And as far as I remember bandits don't hunt for poor bridge builders."

Tazuna stood abruptly. "I- I'm not hunted by anyone!"

Shiro raised his lone arm to stop his rambling. "I. Don't. Give. A. Single. Fuck." he drawled, "If this mission could be above my team's abilities I will abandon it. Right here, right now. So you better come out now or we will head right back."

The older man faltered. Sighing he sat back down and took a swig from the sake bottle at his belt. "Fine. I'll tell you..."

 **The Eyes of Truth**

"Reporting for duty, Lord Hokage."

Hiruzen Sarutobi looked up from the book he had been reading. Team 7 stood in front of his desk, Naruto as always closer to Hinata than strictly necessary.

"Ah, Team 7. Good. There is an emergency on a mission and you will be sent as backup for Team 1. Jonin Shiro has requested your team for your protective capabilities. You will-"

He was interrupted by Naruto's gasp. "Hold up! Dad's a sensei?! How come I wasn't told?!"

Hinata pulled him back in line by his hand, again holding on longer than necessary. "You were distracted when Iruka announced the first two teams."

Naruto frowned. "How was I- Ooooh... Never mind." He turned to the Hokage. "Please excuse the interruption. Do continue, Lord Hokage."

Hiruzen was always impressed by the manners Naruto could display - if he wanted to - and thanked kami that he had met Hinata.

"Yes, of course. You will leave as soon as possible. The mission is B- possibly A-ranked. Prepare for mortal combat against missing nin." He sent them of with a grave nod to Kakashi.

"Wow, we are ginin for a day and already on our way to an A-rank mission? That's kinda fast if you ask me."

"But no one asked you, Naruto," Sasuke huffed. "Let's just hurry up and prepare. I hope Kakashi isn't late again."

After two hours of crushing feeble hopes Kakashi made an appearance. "Let's go-," he substituted with a log that was hacked to pieces by a dozen windmill shuriken, "- and go meet up with Team 1!" he finished walking out from behind a tree not far from the gate.

Naruto and Sasuke resealed their shuriken -even Hinata pocketed one - and they moved out.

The way to wave country wasn't long but with the new information revealed it could be very dangerous. The three genin were in guard, their eyes scanning along their way. It took them about a day to reach the camp that Shiro had set up.

They arrived in a battlefield.

 **A/N:** **Here we go with Chapter 4. Let me just say that there is no true genin test. The genin that come from my academy are real ninja, no questions asked.  
**

 **Mind you that I did not disregard my previous chapter. Naruto and Hinata simply hid their connection from everyone, even from the readers :3 Now some useless information for you:  
**

 _ **The Eye of truth:**_

 **The eye of truth, or also called the Black Eyes, is the most 'active' eye technique aside from the Rinnegan.**

 **Aside from the ability to see chakra in about the same fashion as the Sharingan and photographic memory coupled with an enhanced brain usage to increase processing of information there are some unique abilities to it. Aside from the unnerving ability to see through ones own eyelids.**

 **The eye are to a degree sentient. No, they don't talk to the bearer and no, they don't suddenly stop working because the bearer has become unworthy. These eyes simply act on their own at times as to execute the will of the universe. An example: Shiro had never met his wife if his eyes hadn't suddenly cast a genjutsu on a rock on the way. Shiro was confused as to why it happened until a woman stumbled over the now invisible rock straight into him. Five months later Hana was part of the family. Matchmaking isn't all these eyes do on their own bit that'll come in time.**

 **It has the ability to produce genjutsu at will, but not directly into a target like the Sharingan can, and see the rifts and holes in between reality, also granting the ability to enter the dimension in between. This dimension cannot be compared to the separated dimension of the Kamui as the Eye user cannot enter the very same spot at will. The total lack of light also makes it impossible to see and despite the existence of air inside it there is no sound. Using a beacon that is crated with blood and a seal produced from the eyes _The Seal of Light_ , essentially a beacon, the user has a sense of direction to where his beacon is. Distance is none existent in the dimension in between and time moves far faster inside of it. Usually, when using the dimension to move to a beacon the user stays in the dimension for ten to twenty seconds, depending on skill of the user. Outside not even a millisecond will have passed.**

 **Another more passive ability of _The Eye of Truth_ is what also gives it the name. When making eye contact with a person, animal or any other sentient being with eyes connected to the brain, the user extracts every tiny bit of information about the target. While holding eye contact the user will also read the targets throughts and emotions, be aware of the heartbeat and health of the target. The eye even sees what the target does not know, events that transpired with the target but without it's knowledge, say an assassination a few feet behind the target. To prevent knowing all the, partly shameful and partly disgusting, things about some people a blindfold with a special seal is worn. It reduces the sight to human shinobi standard and can be willed into an enhanced, chakra-seeing state.**

 **Another active ability is what the eye-bearers call _Void_. Summoning the darkness from the dimension in between they crack open a rip in reality which is usually intangible. When drawing matter from the dimension negative pressure is crated in it which has an amplified effect on reality since matter from the dimension in between is unstable when coming in contact with matter from reality (Mind you that eye-bearers are protected by their eyes and Hinata by the seal on her heart. And since she is married to Naruto, also by the eye). If such a _Void_ is created a black whole will appear at the opened crack. The following explosion of opposing matter is contained behind the black hole's event horizon. If the target isn't killed by the initial opening of the black whole they would perceive the resulting explosion as a bright blue flash that fades into gold before they are disintegrated and consumed by the explosion. And if that didn't kill them they would be trapped in between two differently moving flows of time. The effect of this on organic matter is unknown. The drawback of this technique however is the long time it takes to amass enough chakra to tear apart reality and the fact that there is a clear indication at the targeted position. Shiro takes five seconds to amass enough chakra and three to open the black whole. Currently Naruto needs thrice the time.**

 **Another ability that has been discovered by Shiro himself is called _Unholy Offering_. It's effects and requirements are only known to the man himself. All that his son knows about it is that he had lost his arm that way. **

**More Abilities have yet to be thought of :3**


	5. Chapter 5

**The Family**

 **Chapter 5**

 **A/N: If you haven't read it yet, there is a list in my profile with the stories and the order I will finish them in. Hint: This one is the first :3**

 **Remember that this story is about ninja, not some show ponies. Flashy fights are an exception.**

 **I am aware that some people don't like Hinata's character, hell even I don't like her original personality all that much. But this here isn't canon Hinata. This girl is older, more confident and has been taught to be a kickass ninja for four years. She knows what to to, how to do it and is determined to do it. Canon Hinata would have failed sex ed classes no questions asked. But this Hinata here has had Naruto at her side, wasn't abused to hell by her family (at least not as bad)and properly guided by the academy through it all with physicians and shrinks as much as they needed them. In her very core this is still Hinata don't get me wrong, she simply grew up. I suppose this is my interpretation of how Hinata should have been in canon. A kind heart that is determined to do everything for her loved ones.**

 **This will cover the wave arc. Just so you know, Fem!Haku. This is a major chapter, meaning it's far longer than the others! Enjoy :3  
**

 **Edit A/N : This chapter is to point out that all ninja are monster. They are so fare beyond normal human abilities that not even the best "normal" fighter could seriously harm a freshly graduated genin. Their use of chakra has strengthened their bodies to superhuman killing machines. So, here in this world, there's a motto: _Only a ninja can kill a ninja_. **

**So don't expect any highly tactical fight. They might just flick their wrists at someone's face and it will peel right off. For the awesome shit you will have to wait for the chunin exams, where ninja battle ninja.**

 **On with it!**

Slowly, painfully the sword was pushed into his gut, the cold steel grinding against living bone and chocking his screams of agony.

"Who sent you?"

This cold voice again. It demanded, commanded him. It held power over him. Over his live. He asked again, stabbed again and was again met with silence and blood. After the last twist of the blade the man went limp, his life faded and the head with it's empty eye sockets hit the the bloody ground with a soft thud.

Shiro growled and threw his sword straight through the next eyeless man. He already knew who had sent them, but it surprised him how tough some of these were. His genin where doing fine. Judging by the amount of bodies that were cleaved in half, covered in blood and ink or had strange strangulation marks, they were hard at work against the sudden ambush.

With a disgusted noise, Shiro tore the bandages from his head and growled at the next group of mercenaries.

 _ **"Void!** "._

For a few seconds nothing happened. Shiro didn't move, not even as an arrow whizzed dangerously close by his head. But then a black pulse boomed from both his eyes, the black of his scleras covered even the gold of his irises - and then they died. All of them.

Admits the group of 30 or so mercenaries a whole opened. Not in the ground, no, it opened in space - in reality itself - and created a black hole that instantly expanded all around them. No sound escaped the sphere of pure black, no pained scream, no cry for help. And when after two seconds the black whole vanished without a trace there was nothing but a whole the ground where once a group of men had been, it's surface perfectly smooth as if cut by the sharpest of blades.

Shiro closed his eyes and put on his blindfold once again. He sensed the weak signal of Tazuna a few trees behind him. Shikamaru was there, strangulating the five mercenaries nearby. Feeling no others in that direction Shiro moved to where he could feel Sai and Ren. With all of these mercenaries, some of them blind samurai, where two missing nin, the demon brothers. It seemed that Gato, the tycoon that wanted Tazuna and his bridge gone, had paid a good lot of money for his army _and_ his information. These eyeless warriors were no coincidence, not with him there.

There was a spy in Konoha. He needed to send a hawk.

...

Ren slid out of his sprint under the chain of the demon brothers that was connected to both of their gauntlets. With a boost of chakra to his legs he launched himself into the trees, avoiding the chain again as the brothers swung it back at him. From his perch at a tree top he could see Sai's creations launch themselves from everywhere around the clearing. Ren's smirked, they had lured the two rouge chunin into a trap. When the masses of ink slammed into the Ren flickered down right where they were practically glued to the ground.

He bent his knees, sword sheathed and exhaled.

 _Flashing Strike!_

The effect was instantaneous. The first brother was cleaved clean in half, his torso seemingly floating above the rest of his body, while the innards of the second brother were splayed across the grassy ground as he gurgled up blood instead of the scream of agony that he wanted to produce. In a mass of ink and blood both brothers fell to the ground, dead.

Sai stepped out of the trees, the same unnerving smile as ever on his face - and some blood, clearly not his own. "Well done, slug."

Rolling his eyes at the insult to his inability to use his technique as fast as it should be - he should have never told Sai that - Ren sheathed his blade. "Not to bad yourself, creep. Any left?"

The emotionless ninja shook his head. "Every single one of them is dead. Defense successful."

"Good, let's head back to-" Just then Shiro dropped down in the clearing. He quickly looked over the bodies. The demon brothers were essentially the weakest missing nin to go around but that also meant that one of the more dangerous missing nin was with them. Zabuza Momochi, jonin level missing nin and former member of the legendary seven Swordsmen of the Mist.

"Good job kids, let's head back. Tazuna is with-" Shiro stilled, head turning towards the forest. A smirk crossed his features. "Backup has arrived."

Sai spoke up. "And just in time, more mercenaries are coming this way. I can sense a ninja with them."

"Aye, so do I. Let's move, they can find us with Tazuna. Hinata's gonna find us easily."

"Yessir!" the genin chorused and the three of them vanished from the clearing.

...

"Dad!"

Naruto and his team dropped down in the camp, startling Tazuna so bad he fell off his tree stump.

Shiro cleaned the rest of blood from his sword and waved at his son. "Hey there, you're right on time. Second wave incoming."

"We noticed," Kakashi said and stepped forward. "You are the senior here, you give the orders. Where do you need us?"

Shiro was a bit surprised. Both at the fact that Kakashi was giving him the command and that he was actually on time. "Okay," he said, standing up, "Gather around, people."

Naruto, Hinata and Sasuke walked up. Ren clapped Naruto on the shoulder and gave a kind smile to Hinata. Sasuke acknowledged the swordsman's presence with a grunt. Shikamaru muttered something that could only have been "troublesome" under his breath but greeted them anyways. Sai just smiled eerily at them.

"The enemy is mostly untrained, except for the eyeless samurai and that ninja they have with them," Shiro explained. "Those samurai will try to swarm me and probably Naruto if they know who he is. That means that those other mercenaries and that ninja probably carry information that one of us could steal if we made eye contact. Ah yes, a side note: If Naruto and I do take off these bandages, do not make eye contact unless you want to expose your every secret to us. Just sayin'. Anyways, the ninja they have coming is...-" Shiro took a second to let his senses expand, "-about chunin I'd say but we shouldn't be overconfident. If things get out of hand Kakashi and I will handle it. Aside from that, don't get swarmed, stay in the shadows. We are ninja after all."

Everyone nodded. Ren and Naruto both had a hand on their blades, ready to fight.

"Positions?" Sasuke asked.

Shiro nodded. "Right. I know that Naruto's and Hinata's teamwork is unparalleled so that's a safe bet. You two, in and out. Strike fast and quietly." The two of them nodded.

He looked at Sasuke next. "Your Sharingan. Fully matured?" The boy nodded. "Good. You go with Ren, your eyes can keep up with his blade and so can you, probably. Second line of defense. Target the samurai if you can, if you get tired these guys could become a threat." Ren and Sasuke nodded.

"Shikamaru, Sai," he addressed them, "You will litter everything behind these four with as many traps as you can and then fall back to Tazuna. Take no risks, someone needs to be with the client at all times. For now that will be me." They nodded and Shiro looked at Kakashi. "Make sure they come out of this alive."

The silver haired man nodded and vanished in a swirl of leaves.

Shiro drew his sword and planted it into the ground. "Move out!"

...

"Which direction?"

"South, you idiot! Didn't you listen to the ninja?"

"Nah, I was ogling at her. Have you seen these-"

His words were cut off same as his head. His partner was dead before he realized he had fallen silent.

A flash of white ( **A/N: Remember, Naruto's hair are white!** ) and black vanished as fast as they had appeared.

...

"You think Gato even pays us enough for this?"

"How much they give you?"

"4k ryo."

"What?! That's like twice-"

He stilled as his gaze suddenly fixed on two crimson red orbs in the shadows. Then nothing, no feeling in his legs. He frowned and looked down. His legs were gone. His scream was stopped by a kunai that lodged itself into his forehead. The second man turned to see why his fellow solider had stopped talking but mid turn his vision swam. He blinked. Blinked again. And he fell dead to the ground, cleaved in half straight down between his eyes.

A sword flashed back into its sheath and two red eyes closed. They were gone before anyone could ever have see them.

...

"What the hell?"

"What was-"

"Ryu? Ryu what-"

"Guys? Kami, the blood! How-"

Naruto stepped out of his genjutsu, sheathing his blade. "There's a lot of them."

Hinata flickered down besides him, eyes staring at all the blood at her feet. "Yes... There's another group, five of them. They're these samurai Shiro mentioned."

Naruto placed a hand on Hinata's shoulder and kissed her cheek despite the blood on her face. "Don't feel bad. Remember: Close your heart to it. It's you or them."

She nodded squeezing the hand hand her shoulder despite knowing it was a lie. These men never had a chance, not against them. "Right. Let's go."

...

As the last man of the group stabbed himself through his own heart to escape the horrors of Sasuke's genjutsu, Ren cleaved through yet another group of man with one swipe.

"These samurai are better than the others but still no match," he said. Sasuke dropped out of the trees.

"Truly, it is scary how much stronger one with active chakra in their body becomes," the Uchiha acknowledged. "Let's move on."

"Indeed."

...

"That's the ninja isn't it?" Naruto asked Hinata. The two of them sat high up on a tree behind one of Naruto's genjutsu.

The Hyuuga nodded. "Yes, she has about as much chakra as me. She isn't a sensor but her chakra is... different. I suppose it's a bloodline."

Naruto hummed thoughtfully. "We need to be careful then. Let's fall back for now, regroup with Sasuke and Ren."

...

"A bloodline? Did you find out which one?"

Hinata looked up at Kakashi who had just appeared in the tree above the four of them. She shook her head, looking dejected. "No, my eyes aren't strong enough to see this kind of detail."

"Yet," added Naruto and nudged her lightly. She giggled and turned red.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Anyways, what now? Do we engage?"

Kakashi dropped down besides them. "No, gather Intel. They are a good distance away yet and are moving slowly."

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "What would more Intel do?"

"Think, Naruto," Kakashi chided, "She is a hired ninja with a bloodline. That means she isn't affiliated with a village and her ties to her employer are loose, probably only based on money."

"You think we can turn her over?" Naruto questioned.

The jonin shrugged. "It wouldn't be the first time."

...

"Yeah, let's do that," Shiro said after hearing the team's discussion. A ninja with a bloodline was always more than welcome in Konoha. "Whose up for a good ol' capture and extract mission?"

No one raised a hand. These missions were notorious for being absolutely unpredictable.

"No one? Really? And here I thought I had a reason to teach you a new technique, son."

Naruto's left eye twitched - not that anyone saw that - but he didn't move. Could he capture her? He would need to mow his way through a horde of guys to get to her and kill his path out with her in tow, if not on his back. That was real troublesome, as Shikamaru would have put it. Wasn't there an easier way to-? Ah. Of course.

"I'll do it," he said and drew his sword. Like his father did, he rammed it into the ground. Hinata seemed to understand what he was planning. "How long do I have?"

Shiro looked up at the sky. "I'd say till nightfall. Are all of the traps prepared?" he asked Sai and Shikamaru just as they dropped down behind him.

"We are as set as we can be. Even tough it was troublesome killing those strays you missed," yawned Shikamaru and added, "Make sure to get as much information on her as you can, though. And be quick to use it, can't have her think you'd hesitate."

"Yes, the slug was once again to slow, letting those men get through. Pairing him with dickless over there only made things worse." Sai's smile was as persistent as ever.

Sasuke's nose gave a violent twitch and his eyes were forcefully closed so he wouldn't glare back with his Sharingan. Ren just rolled his eyes.

"We'll set up camp then. Sassy over there gets the first shift." This time Sai's smile seemed to nearly drop. He just nodded, the smile just a tick colder than before.

Kakashi sighed. "Oh boy..."

...

"Who are you?"

Naruto was glad that his genjutsu was as good as it was. Being shock frozen by this ninja didn't seem pleasant at all. The log he had substituted with surely didn't like it.

"I've come to talk," he said, his voice coming from seemingly everywhere at once. He just loved this genjutsu.

She scoffed. "One doesn't come to 'talk' and murders every puppet that got in his way."

"It is as you say, they got in the way. Its not like you care about them anyways."

She remained silent. Good, she was as detached as he had hoped. "I'm here to make you and offer."

"An offer? Why would I consider such an offer?"

Good thing they had been gathering Intel. "Because the swine you work for couldn't possibly be worth the meager amount of money he throws at you."

She stilled and eased out of her stance. "Show yourself!" she called out.

Naruto appeared a good distance in front of her, mindful of the senbon needles she still held in her hand. "You're with the leaf," she stated.

"I am," he confirmed, pulling at the plate at his hip, "and the leaf will make you a good offer, which isn't really hard when we consider your current employer."

"What could you possibly offer."

Good old Intel. "Safety." She flinched, good. "What is your name?" Naruto asked.

"Haku. My name is Haku."

"I'm Naruto, genin of the hidden leaf. I know that you have been hunted. Every bloodline user from kiri has been. With the leaf such fate would not befall you. I ought to know," he said, indicating his eyes, well his hidden eyes. You get what I mean.

Haku was silently regarding him. She seemed to believe him but something held her back. "I... I can't decide that. My master must decided. I am but his tool."

Naruto nodded but frowned a bit. "Give Zabuza my regards. I would love to fight him and his blade. In a friendly spar, that is, in the leaf of course." And with that he vanished again, teleporting himself back to his sword.

"What an odd boy...," Haku mumbled before sighing, looking at all the bodies laying around her. "And what a mess he left..."

...

Shiro scratched the stubble at his chin. "That isn't too bad. Good you didn't force her to come, that would have made working with her a lot harder."

"I knew that...," Naruto grumbled, leaning on his sword.

"Sure you did. They are leaving, do we move forward?" Sasuke asked.

"Aye lad, we will. But first we rest. Cover tents at your leisure but-," he looked towards Naruto and Hinata, "-sleep, it has been a hard day."

Naruto and Hinata looked ready to melt on the spot but that didn't stop them from entering the same tent.

"We really have to make sure Kurenai never finds out about this," Kakashi said.

"Oh don't remind me. She'll have my balls," Shiro said. "And yours after that."

"Don't get me into this, you let them! Why are you smiling like this? Shiro? Shiro!"

...

They traveled the distance to Tazuna's house in two days without ever meeting one of Gato's men again. Haku seemed to have pulled all of them back. That either meant there was going to one hell of a blood bath or Haku and Zabuza would do the bloody work for them and offer to migrate to Konoha. Either way, Shiro and Kakashi wanted to be prepared. When the house came in sight, Shikamaru and Sai were immediately dispatched to set up traps and alarms.

"Nice house," Naruto commented, "Though why is it so far from the village?"

Sasuke snorted. "Do you ever think farther than Hinata goes? He's a target."

Naruto's eye twitched - again unnoticed - but Hinata's hand on his arm calmed him instantly.

Ren gave a mild laugh. "He's right though."

"Shut up..." Naruto mumbled.

Shiro hit the three young man over the head. "Enough bickering, move on now."

Tazuna stumbled up the steps to his house. The journey had truly shaken him. He didn't even notice the absence of his sake. Before he even reached the door it was thrown open by a young woman with dark blue hair, she couldn't have been much older than the genin, maybe 27 or something. "Oh father! You managed to come back!" She threw herself at her father in a bone crushing hug.

For the first time since he had left Konoha, Tazuna managed to smile. "Yes, Tsunami, that I did. And how I did... Oh man..." He scratched his head after his daughter stepped away. "Anyhow, I have brought us some protection. They will make sure the bridge gets finished." He jabbed his thumb tiredly at them.

Tsunami stepped around her father to look at the ninja. She blushed.

There were five men. Five quite so attractive men. One was even topless! And, dear lady of the seas was he ripped! And... where those faint marks...whiskers? No, she must be imagining things... The blonde was hot! And the green eyed one, those forearms told the story of hardwired muscle! And then the dark eyed one! He looked so mysterious and was surely just as ripped! Was this heaven? She was about to take a step towards the blonde when a chill ran down her spine.

Hinata didn't like that woman. She had a weird leer in her eyes when she looked at Naruto - who, for whatever reason, deemed the time fitting to change into a not blood stained vest and shirt - who stood besides her, talking with his father about the effects of black holes on organic matter. So when Tsunami took a step forward, eyes still on Naruto - her _husband,_ tough no one really knew that - she glared at her. Really hard. Like, full force.

And she wasn't a Hyuuga for nothing.

"Ahahahaha... Please, do come in!" Tsunami tried to nervously laugh the cold feeling off but it only disappeared once Hinata was ushered inside by Naruto. Maybe chastity wasn't so bad after all. Then again, one child was indeed enough. She sighed thinking about her son, Inari. Her child was but eight years old yet his outlook on live was already darkened ever since he lost his father figure to Gato's rule. He never knew his real father, and truly, neither did she. He probably was one of the samurai that died in some ditch not too far from here. It didn't matter. She loved her child despite it all. That was why she was so worried about his attitude towards life, calling it hopeless. And as if on cue, she heard the very same word from inside the house.

"-all is hopeless! Why do you people even bother?!"

Naruto regarded the child atop the stairs before answering. "Child, we have a mission to fulfill and that we will do. Nothing more, nothing less." That was a taught answer from the academy.

Inari shook his head, tears spilling from his eyes."As if you could! It's hopeless, everything is! You have no idea how hard things are here! You don't understand what it's like! You're just a bunch of idiots from you're safe village!"

The temperature in the room dropped dangerously low. So low that it startled Inari out of his rant.

" _We_ don't know what it's like?" Sasuke growled. "You still have family around you."

"You aren't alone out there trying to catch up to someone who isn't even there anymore," Ren added, eyes on the sword at his side.

"Who are you to even think you could understand the pain of being alone? Have you ever survived of the streets? Lived of what others threw away? You, child," Naruto flickered right in front of Inari and jabbed a finger in his chest, "have _no idea_ of what it is like to be alone. Don't act like you do."

Hinata nodded. "You have not experienced true loss yet, you have your family around you. They care for you, work for you to be happy. Not the other way around." She walked up the few steps and pulled Naruto down again.

The four genin excused themselves and stepped outside.

Kakashi sighed. "That just had to happen, hadn't it?"

Shiro shrugged. "The kid had it coming," he said, looking after the fleeing Inari. He heard a door upstairs slam shut. He turned to Tsunami and Tazuna, who were standing uncomfortably in the doorway where the ninja had just exited. "We apologize for their behavior but they didn't have the easiest of life you could imagine."

Tazuna coughed. "Ah, well no. Excuse my grandson, he's a but... well...," he trailed off shaking his head. "It's in the past, make yourselves at home for now, tomorrow we will head to the bridge."

His daughter nodded." Yes, please, take a seat for now, dinner will soon be served." She turned and walked into the open kitchen before calling back, "Ah yes, we have three spare rooms, so uh... I suppose your female... friend, teammate could sleep in my room if necessary."

Kakashi shook his head. "That won't be necessary, don't trouble yourself with us." Hinata would only be too happy to share a bed with Naruto. Thinking about that, he briefly wondered if Shiro knew about his son's somewhat accidental marriage.

Of course he would, he didn't have these eyes for nothing. What Kakashi didn't know was, that the current head of the family was acutely aware of all the members so he knew very much so that Hinata was part of it. Naruto had gotten his earful for that already.

"Perimeter secured. But... what are all of you doing out here?" Shikamaru asked them when he and Sai approached the house.

Sasuke snorted. "They have one bratty kid."

"Yeah," Ren added, "Thinks he's on the hard side of life."

"I still think we overreacted," Naruto mused.

"You reacted the most, Naruto," Hinata chided. He laughed sheepishly in response.

"Yeah... well... I guess I did."

Shikamaru shook his head, again resisting the urge to smoke. He did that a lot these days. "So, how will we contact Haku? We have a way to contact her, do we?"

Naruto stopped dead in his tracks. Yeah... how would they contact her? "Fuck."

"Naru, language," Hinata chided but she too felt like frowning.

"You... are you serious white boy?" Sasuke asked, glaring at him.

"Hey, cut me some slack! I didn't even know if she would accept to talk to me! I was just trying to gain her trust then!" Naruto defended himself.

"Fine, fine!" Shikamaru sighed. "Troublesome... It won't matter. They know that we are here, if they want to find us, they will."

And as if on cue Haku dropped down in the clearing. Her appendages were covered in ice, frozen explosive tags were stuck in them. "Indeed we will."

Shikamaru flinched a bit but the others didn't react. Sai and Naruto had sensed her after all and Hinata had seen her coming for miles now. Sasuke just read the others reactions with his Sharingan.

"Where is Zabuza?" Naruto asked, not looking Haku's way. He instead played with a lock of Hinata's long hair. "Is he not your master?"

Haku stood perfectly still in an inoffensive posture, her legs clad in tight black pants without shoes on her feet. A wide, dark-brown shirt was tucked into a belt slung around her slender waist and her long, silky black hair was captured in a neat bun atop her head. To any untrained civilian she wasn't standing out too much aside from her tight pants but a ninja spotted the many pouches in her wide shirt, the senbon needles hidden in her sleeves and hidden as hair needles in her bun. To Sasuke and Naruto, the muscle tone of her legs also spoke of chakra usage, it just looked different when someone developed his muscles with it.

"Master Zabuza is nearby," she said.

Hinata smiled gently at the girl. "683 meters isn't nearby, even for a ninja."

Haku nodded. "No, it isn't."

There was a rush of leaves and the Konoha genin tensed. Out of the trees dropped a figure to Haku's side. A tall man with a sword just as tall strapped to his back loomed over all of them, save for Naruto. "Greetings, leaf ninja," the man said, the deep gravely voice slightly muffled by the bandages by the bandages over his mouth and nose. "I hear you have a deal for us."

"We do indeed." Shiro shimmered into existence right in front of the man. "Zabuza Momochi, I presume?"

Zabuza didn't react to the sudden appearance, he would have sensed him anyways. "Aye. Now Tell me of this deal."

"We would be willing to recruit you into our village's forces," Kakashi's voice spoke from behind Haku. The girl whirled around him shock and came to face the lone, red glaring Sharingan eye of the silver haired jonin. But when nothing happened she eased out of her alerted stance. In the same moment, Naruto and Ren pulled their blades back from Haku's neck. "Now, now. Ease up. We are here to become allied with each other, not to fight."

"My apologies," Naruto said, bowing slightly and stepping out of Haku's personal space same as Ren.

"No, it's fine. I was just surprised," Haku admitted and bowed likewise.

Suddenly Zabuza slammed his giant blade into the forest floor and growled. "Now out with it!" he shouted, "What is this deal of yours?"

"As we already said, we can grant you asylum and a place in our ranks in Konoha _if_ you choose to help us take down Gato. Your betrayal against your former leader has not been forgotten yet, you would need to redeem yourselves. " Shiro sat down casually on the forest floor, gesturing for Zabuza to do the same.

The swordsman said nothing but sat down as well. His eyes gleamed in furry. "The current Mizukage is a monster. He is instigating all of those bloodline purges! Kiri is at war with itself only because of him!" He snorted. "We did not betray our village, we left it after it was already dead, rotten from the inside!"

Haku, the six genin and Kakashi all sat down with each other, forming a circle around Shiro and Zabuza.

Shiro nodded. "I see, so you stayed true to your ideals then. You would need to prove that to our Hokage, can you do that?"

"I can, leave Haku out of this." Zabuza's hand brushed absently over the blade in his lap.

"That... could be arranged."

Zabuza nodded. "We have been hired by Gato, along with his army of mercenaries, to take out Tazuna and the ninja he hired in the Leaf. This job... we only took it because we needed the money for..."

"To help raise funds for the revolution in Kiri, right?" Kakashi mused aloud.

Zabuza chuckled lowly. "Right, you sure know your stuff. As long as we don't loose that ability we are in agreement."

"I cannot promise you that just yet," Shiro admitted. "If a ninja of Konoha would support the war in Kiri we would be drawn into it. It is yet being discussed if our involvement could benefit us."

"I can guarantee you your benefits if you supporter the revolution. An alliance forged in defeating those who try to kill off blood line wielders," Zabuza explained.

"I am in no position to decide that," the white haired man said. "The Hokage is the only one to decide that. But if we can truly benefit from an alliance with the revolution, I can see Konoha aiding you."

"Good." Zabuza stood. "Then we have a deal." He held out a hand to Shiro.

"Aye, a deal we have indeed," he said and firmly grasped Zabuza's hand.

The moment the deal was sealed the ninja stood from their places around the two men.

"Let us head back to the house, dinner will be served soon," Kakashi suggested.

As if on cue, Naruto's stomach gave an unusually loud growl. "Ah... well, Dinner?" he laughed.

...

The atmosphere was more tense than it had been in the forest with all those men attacking them. Tazuna was on the edge of his chair, ready to bolt. The two ninja that had been hired to kill him were eating dinner with him! In his own house at that! Oh dear kami, he was going insane... Where was the sake when he _really_ needed it?!

"Do you mind handing me the sauce?"

"Sure thing. Here you go."

"Thanks."

"Say, what kind of fish did you use? It tastes wonderful."

"Why thank you. It's spotted seabass, actually. With a side of lemon."

"Gotta say, never had anything that fucking delicious in a long time."

"Master Zabuza, please. No cursing at the table."

"Tsch, whatever you say, princess..."

"Master!"

Tazuna just gaped at the scene at his table. These people, even his own daughter(!) acted as if everything was perfectly fine!

"What the fuck?" he finally rasped out.

Tsunami slapped her fathers hand, which he had laying limply besides his still empty plate. "Father! What is wrong with you? We have guests!"

Yeah, he was definitely the only sane person left here.

...

"Well fuck me, this bridge is actually damn impressive."

Tazuna nodded but took a few steps away from Zabuza, who had just spoken up. "Of course it is, it needs to be. Otherwise you would just have torn it down again," Tazuna muttered. Zabuza didn't react to the comment.

Shiro and Kakashi stood right besides Zabuza, watching their genin, plus Haku, work with the other workers on the bridge. It was decided that they wanted to accelerate the progress of the bridge a bit and every hand extra could be needed. Hinata was walking up and down steal beams and pillars, hammering bolts inside them with her palm. Shiro was highly amused as he once again saw Naruto disperse the flock of workers that had just taken to watch Hinata work. What was even more amusing, and a bit surprising, was that Sasuke did the same for Haku. The girl used her ice to freeze parts in place so they could be properly connected to the structure later.

"What do you think, Tazuna," Shiro spoke up, stepping between the bridge builder and Zabuza, "How long will it take like this?"

The older man hummed, scratching his chin. "Two weeks? Maybe three but definitely bot as long as it would have before."

Kakashi nodded. "We can work with that." He turned to his white haired friend. "I will make the rounds, see you later."

Shiro nodded and Kakashi disappeared in a swirl of leaves.

"Well, let's see if we can't get them to work a little faster." Shiro walked onto the bridge and inhaled deeply.

 _ **"Get moving you damn brats before I sick Anko and Kurenai on you! I want this bridge done by the end of the week!"**_

Haku just stopped in confusion at the overly loud shout that came from below but the Konoha genin froze in raw horror.

Naruto had vivid flashbacks of how Anko taught them the most brutal way to kill a man in his sleep or after one had seduced him. He still had nightmares about what she had the snake do, to his shadow clone no less...

Sasuke and Hinata just never wanted to be in one of those genjutu sessions with Kurenai again. The two of them trained their eyes by being forced to stare at Rock Lee's and Maito Guy's unbreakable genjutsu until they were able to see through it, a lesson that neither he nor Hinata ever wanted to go through again. Pure and utter Horror.

Ren was not about to be near any of Anko's snakes again. He was taught tree walking by her. There were snakebites everywhere. _Everywhere!_

And Sai, well let's just say that his ink snakes were very realistic from both outside and _inside_ for a reason.

As for Shikamaru, he never had uttered the word troublesome before in a more rapid succession than he had in his lessons in sex ed with Anko. The woman was more troublesome than the word could ever describe. She bit him! Twenty-four times! In every lesson!

"MOVE, YOU FOOLS! **MOVE!** "

It wasn't entirely clear who had screamed back then, but Tazuna had never seen a bridge been built that fast in his entire life and the man did nothing but build bridges all day if he wasn't dead drunk.

...

"I'm impressed," Zabuza said, looking over the nearly finished bridge, "and I really want two meet those two kunoichi you mentioned."

Naruto plopped down besides him, wiping the sweat of his brow with his sleeve. "Believe me, you don't."

"You really don't," Ren added from his spot on the ground next to Naruto.

Shiro kicked his son's leg just as he appeared besides his sword. "Come on now, they aren't that bad." He turned to Tazuna, who was beaming like a child at his bridge. "We know that Gato and his lump of mercenaries will be here tomorrow. Apparently, he couldn't afford to hire anymore ninja so this so going to be a piece of cake."

Hinata and Haku returned from the river bank with fresh water, Haku even froze some apple juice for them. Sasuke and Shikamaru were addicted to the stuff and so was Sai but never would he admit that.

Tazuna nodded. Things were really strange with ninja around. "Just... just _try_ to not soak everything in blood, will you?"

Kakashi laughed from his perch atop a tree. "No promises!"

...

 _ **"Void!" "Void!"**_

The twin black whole ripped open just above the bridge surface, the one on the left side scrapping the steel ever so slightly. As masses of men where swallowed by the two spheres of death and destruction, Naruto groaned.

"Dammit! I won't fix this one!" he lamented, eyes fixed on the sphere he was maintaining.

"Suck it up, son. You need to control it better. Aim more carefully and try not to blink while holding it open." Shiro stood casually besides his son, also focusing on the black hole.

"Dammit!" Naruto suddenly cursed. Shiro raised an eye brow, eyes not wavering.

"Made eye contact?" he asked.

Naruto nodded and scowled. "Yeah, good thing he's dead."

"You will have to learn to shake it of, that happens from time to time," Shiro said. "Now, let me teach you something new."

"Really?" Naruto shouted excitedly, his sphere wavered ever so slightly.

"Yes really, don't loose focus, son, and watch closely."

Shiro raised a hand before him, flat in no apparent hand seal. Then his eyes' golden irises glowed a bit and the black hole on the bridge stated to move as if it was pushed backwards. It tore into the dense line of hundreds of mercenaries like a hot knife through butter.

"Wow, that's awesome," Naruto said, an eager gleam in his eyes. The boy always loved to learn new things.

"Try it," he told his son. "Try to move the rift you opened by using the same force you apply when opening them. But now, instead of tearing it wider, push at the edges."

Naruto also raised his hand in the same fashion Shiro did. "Like... like this?"

Naruto's eyes pulsed black a little before his golden irises also started to glow a bit. Within the gold was of course no pupil but it was also not the red, three pronged crown that was in Shiro's eyes. In Naruto's eyes was a dark blue cross which looked like two slitted pupils crossing perpendicularly. Hinata's eyes under the genjutsu looked exactly the same.

The black hole Naruto focused on wavered a bit and shrunk just a fraction before move unsteadily backwards into the terrified mercenaries.

"Its close, just try and keep the flow stable or it might just blow up on us," Shiro said. "Now let's stop this, we ought to push them back."

Both black spheres vanished and Shiro turned around to where Shikamaru was playing shogi with Ren an Sasuke talked to Kakashi. Sai, Hinata and Haku were back at the house with Tazuna and his family, just in case. Zabuza was meanwhile raiding Gato's hideout for anything valuable.

"Oi, Hatake! Do your job!"

The lazy jonin looked over at them and the small army that now stormed onto the bridge. "Meh. Sasuke, do your thing."

"... Yessir," Sasuke huffed and flickered forwards, landing between Naruto and his father. "Should I just kill them all?"

"Stop pushing your work around you lazy bum!" Shiro shouted at his fellow jonin. To Sasuke he said, "Well, do whatever you need to do, none of them deserve to live. We saw what they did."

Both Naruto and Shiro had their blindfolds on again. Looking at these despicable men for that long... Naruto knew so many things about them he never wanted to know.

"But leave the bridge intact, Sasuke," Naruto chirped and walked over to Shikamaru and Ren.

"No promises."

"And stop copying Kakashi, that's disgusting!"

...

The numbers dwindled and dwindled until there was but a small group left. Amidst the group, much to the ninja's surprise, was Gato himself.

"Either he is really stupid-," Sasuke said.

"-or actually an overpowered warlord that will crush us all." Everyone raised an eyebrow at Sai. "What?"

"Nothing," Shiro said, "Nothing at all."

Kakashi stepped forward. "Should we capture him? I suppose there is a bounty on his head."

"Only on the head, Kakashi. We have no need for the body," Shiro admonished.

"Right," Shikamaru said, "How long are we going to stare at them from under this genjutsu?"

"Until he's close enough to piss his pants when we just appear in front of him," Naruto answered.

"Yeah, really mature of us."

Ren shrugged and so did Sai. Sasuke huffed, "Who will do it?"

"Does that really matter by now?" Naruto asked. "Just murder his ass so we can go home. I think my plants might be drying out."

" _That_ is what you think about now, son?" Shiro asked.

Naruto just shrugged in response.

"Fine. Go kill him Sasuke," Kakashi said in a bored tone, reading his favorite book.

"How did I get elected for that?"

Everyone looked at him. "You were the one who asked."

"Dammit!" he muttered to himself before vanishing in a swirl of leaves.

...

Gato was not having a good day. He had sour milk for breakfast, ripped a button of his best shirt and one of those stupid sluts but him. After that he had to hear that the stupid bridge that was threatening his business was nearly finished so he sent every man he had to burn down the whole damn village. Deciding to go with them a goad on their loss was probably the worst decision he made that day. After watching those two giant balls of black just swallow up is men, there was lightning and fire everywhere. Shadows came alive and people were just split in half. Monsters of black attacked from above and underneath. It was chaos.

But no it was still, maybe his men had killed whoever attacked. No more fire rained down anyways. So he moved onto the bridge, heading for the village. He still had his most elite men with him, they would be enough to kill the village off.

But the bad things seemed to just swarm at him today. Suddenly the men around him just dropped to the ground, dead or unconscious, he couldn't tell. With a manly squeak he jumped as high as his short legs could get him and ambled backwards as fast as possible.

On and on he crawled away, through blood and gore along the cold steel of the bridge he wanted to be destroyed, until a shadow fell over him. He looked up, fearfully, slowly and came to face... a demon with red eyes.

His scream echoed over the bridge and the sound of a blade cleaving though his fat neck sliced through the air like a gunshot.

Gato was dead, once and for all. The people were free.

...

"I clearly remember asking you to _not_ soak the bridge in blood," Tazuna sighed. "This looks like you intentionally sprayed the blood everywhere!"

Kakashi shrugged, nose buried in his book. "It is as I said, no promises."

"I hate you."


	6. Chapter 6

**The Family**

 **Chapter 6**

 **A/N: Just to refresh your memory: Sakura an Ino are not with the Genin just yet. Currently, they are with the others that failed to graduate and continue their training to graduate half a year later. These groups of academy failures are in a back up force that is to act as support for the shinobi force in as Invasions. You see where this is going...  
**

 **The Teams: (Just so you know)  
**

 **Team1: Ren, Sai, Shikamaru Nara. Assassination and capture. Leader: Shiro Uzumaki (That's just his official name, he has no last name to speak of)  
**

 **Team 2: Special Medic forces. Will later be Ino, Sakura and Haku. The original dies in the invasion. Leader: (later on) Shizune**

 **Team 3: Defense and Fortification/ Rescue and restore. Leader: (later on) Iruka (Who is a Jonin here)  
**

 **Team 4: Assassination/ Weapon specialists. Leader: Hayate Gekko (he's also Jonin here, not just a special Jonin)  
**

 **Team 5: Special Genjutsu Task force. Includes Kurama Yakumo. Leader: Kurenai (I honestly can't remember if I announced her as Team 8's leader by default... Well, she isn't. :3)**

 **Team 6: Espionage and Infiltration Task force. Leader: Unnamed Hyuuga (probably Ko)  
**

 **Team 7: Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha, Hinata Hyuuga. Dojutsu special forces/ Scouts. Leader: Kakashi Hatake**

 **Team 8: Kiba Inuzuka, Choji Akimichi, Shino Aburame. Assault and Hunting Team. Leader: Asuma Sarutobi**

 **Team 9: Neji Hyuuga, Rock Lee, Tenten Higurashi. Search and Destroy/ Assault Specialists. Leader: Might Guy**

 **There is no Team 10. No other Genin teams are in rotation.**

 **XXXXXX**

"-and I won't declare this mission finished until all the blood and... and gore is removed from my bridge!"

Ren groaned, doing busy work like that was first-year academy stuff! Stupid team building... But, as it was taught to him in the academy, a ninja always succeeds in his mission. So, with just a little more groaning, Ren and the other genin turned to clean the newly named bridge.

Sai had wanted to call it "Red Rivers Bridge" given that it was literally christened in rivers of blood. But the villagers thought the name too gorey, choosing to name it after the late hero of the Wave village, Kaiza. The man who had first stood up to Gato and was executed for it. He was also the father figure of Inari.

So, the six Genin and Haku got to clean the "Great Kaiza Bridge" all by themselves.

What a wonderful finish for the mission.

They prepared for the journey home a day later, glad that it was finally over.

Inari had a real change of heart. Hinata and Haku had protected the boy and his mother from a group of thugs that had been sent to kill them. The ninjas conviction, their drive and eventual overwhelming success inspired Inari to strife for bigger things, to be a hero to someone like Kaiza had been to him. His goodbye was by far the teariest.

"Kami dammit," Naruto grumbled, "The brat soaked my pants leg."

Hinata laughed quietly. "He took a liking to you."

Naruto snorted. "Still, he could have just _not_ cried into my leg! Jeez, that won't ever come off again..."

A hand came to rest on his shoulder. He looked to the side to see Shiro sagely shaking his head. "You will understand once you have kids of your own, Naruto."

"What? How do these two things even connect?" Naruto grumbled. Shiro laughed but stilled suddenly. Looking up he saw his hawk hover over them.

He held out his arm and the bird swooped down to him and landed. A message was stuck into his waiting hand by the hawk before it took of again.

Kakashi walked up to him. "A message?"

Shiro nodded as he expertly unrolled the scroll with one hand. "Probably about our spy problem."

That got a raised eyebrow from Kakashi. "Surely they couldn't have found something already?"

"No," Shiro said, reading the message, "But they have found leaks and hints that there is someone. Someone in the hospital, apparently. Medical records have been opened without permission."

"That would enable them to know about your eyes, yes...," Kakashi mused, rubbing his chin as they continued to walk.

Zabuza grinned under the bandages that covered his lower face. "Oh? You have a little spy in your village? Maybe I get to cleave my sword through someone yet!"

There was a childish glee coupled with a murderous undertone in his voice. Shiro shook his head. Oh dear, why had he recruited the man again? Right, one of the seven swordsmen of the mist. Here was hoping he was worth the trouble.

"Right. Let's hurry back people! We have a mission to finish and appointments to set!" Shiro called out to the others.

The genin wondered what kind of appointments the white haired man was talking about but saved the questioning for later. Although Shikamaru had a good idea, he found it too troublesome to act upon his thoughts.

The masses of foreign folks at the village had clued even Naruto in on what was going on. The Chunin Exam.

"Are we going to enter?" Naruto questioned Kalashi as they waited to pass the gate check-in.

"Yeah," Ren spoke up, looking at Shiro, "Will we enter?"

The two jonin looked at each other. Kakashi just shrugged and Shiro rolled his eyes as the silber haired man said "You said something?" to Ren before simply walking past the guards.

Naruto, Hinata and Sasuke huffed in unision before trailing after their sensei. Shrughing, Zabuza and Haku followed.

"I guess we'll see each other later!" Ren called after them.

Team 7 arrived in the Hokage's office with quite some delay. It wasn't easy to convinve the ANBU that Zabuza wasn't hostile and the mans lack of restraint made things even harder.

Finally entering Hiruzen's office they were greeted by five ANBU, the head of the IT department and Inochi Yamanaka. Hiruzen sat behind his desk with a slight frown.

"Kakashi," he adressed the man in a voice that allowed no nonesense, "Explain. Now."

And so Kakahi told the story. Of how they found Haku, made contact after deciding to turn them over, negotiating with Zabuza and then murdering all of Gato's thugs and the man himself.

Hiruzen sighed. "So you took out the leader of the Wave country and dragged an A-Rank missing nin and his apprentice here who would join us if we got to war with Kiri." He slammed his hand flat on the table and the genin plus Haku jumped a little. "God dammit Kakashi! That was a bleedin' escort and protect mission! The benefits better be worth the trouble!"

"They will," Zabuza said, speaking for the first time since he entered the office. "If Konoha steps up to aid the rebellion to reclaim Kiri from the madness that holds it now, I can gurante you immense trade benefits and ectensive military support once we can offer it."

Hiruzen remained calm. "How can you offer this?"

Before Zabuza could answer the door swung opened again and Shiro stomped inside. "I can answer that," he said.

The Hokage motioned for him to speak. He nodded. "I allowed Zabuza to send my Hawk to the rebell leader Terumi Mei. She sent us this list of benefits we would have from an alliance with them." The man produced a scroll amd flicked it at Hiruzen.

Catching it and reading it carefully, the old Hokage sighed. "I will have to think on this. You two are welcome to stay in Konoha. However, Zabuza must fullfill his end of the bargein and confirm his loyalty to us." He motioned to the Yamamaka and Ibiki.

Zabuza grimaced but nodded. Looking at Haku and then at Sasuke for some reason, he was led away.

"Well," Naruto said, having been silent all this time, "That went better than expected."

Hinata smiled at him and Sasuke just grunted. Haku looked very reliefed that things went as smoothly as they did.

However, Kakashi hadn't moved yet. Aparently Hiruzen wasn't finished with them.

"While I congratulate you for completeing an A-Rank mission, you have acted hastily." He gave them all a hard look. "You are not expendable, you are resources of this village, keep that in mind. Contacting possibly hostile forces in _hopes_ of them _maybe not_ attacking you... In such situations you are to _always_ inform me. Is that understood?"

They all bowed, Haku and Kakashi included. "Understood, Lord Hokage!" they chorused.

"Dismissed!"

 **XXXXXX**

"So, the chunin exams, huh?"

Naruto and his team were walking down to training ground 7 after they left the office. Kakashi wasn't with them and they guessed the Jonin were having a meeting regarding their entry in the exams.

"Think we can do it?" Naruto asked the other two.

Sasuke scowled. "I don't have much of a choice. The elders are expecting me to become chunin."

Hinata smiled sadly. "The same goes for me. The clan heirs are all expected to hit chunin within two years of their graduation."

Naruto scratched the back of his head, tilting his head in thought. "Well, aside from Shiro there are no elders to my clan so I have no internal pressure to deal with." He sighed. "But then again, I'm a Jinjuriki. If I'm not hitting chunin, Konoha's gonna have a problem with our reputation."

Sasuke scoffed. "Sucks to be us."

Grinning, Naruto stepped closer to Hinata, who was walking between him and Sasuke. "I am quite fine with who I am." He pinched the unsuspecting Kunoichi's side.

She squealed and swatted his hand away, but smiled all the while.

"God, you make me sick...," Sasuke muttered and shook his head. "Anyways, think Kakashi is there already?"

Naruto's forehead wrinkled for a second. "He just passed us and- Oh, he detours."

"I am not surprised," Hinata said, giggling. "Shall we have dinner then?"

"Now that's what I like to hear!" Naruto cheered and dragged his team mates forward to the Uzumaki "compound".

It wasn't really a compound, not at all. It was just a relatively big house that Naruto and Shiro lived in. Since _The Family_ couldn't be instated as a clan, the Uzumaki name was simply reclaimed, since Naruto's mother was one of the few survivors of the clan.

Shiro himself did not have a last name, he never met his birth parents. At age ten or so he was adopted into the family as a brother to the son of the clan head at that time. And because he was adopted as a brother, his physical features did not change, aside from the eyes.

Anyhow, when Sasuke took notice of the direction they were led to he pulled up besides the white haired teen. "We're going to your comp- house?"

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, dad's not there yet and I know for a fact that I still owe Hinata a meal!"

The Uchiha grunted. "You're just trying to keep out of public as much as possible."

"And you are way to observant..." Naruto huffed.

"It can't be helped," Hinata said, walking just a step behind them. "The less reason we give them to suspect something the better. And besides..." She smiled at the twp boys as they turned around. "Naruto's a great cook."

"Hah! I believe it when I taste it," Sasuke challenged, his tone vacant of the excitement one would expect, but that's Sasuke for you.

"You better believe it!" Naruto laughed and lurched forward with Sasuke in tow into a body flicker.

Hinata sighed as she hurried after them. "Men..."

 **XXXXXX**

"Now admit that you liked it!" Naruto shouted at Sasuke, who sat perched on a tree branch of training ground seven.

"Nothing you could put in my mouth would ever satisfy me, Uzumaki!" the Uchiha huffed back, crossing his arms in front of him.

Hinata put a hand on Naruto's arm. "He just being shy," she said. "Besides, I loved it! The cream especially."

"I knew you'd love that!" Naruto laughed and smiled at his soon-to-be-yet-already-in-secret wife. "And I still have lots more of it! There is a store not far from-"

That's the scene Kakashi had witnessed as he appeared in the clearing, nose in his book. "Did you guys steal one of my books?" he asked lazily.

Sasuke glared at him. "Why would we want that?"

Kakashi shrugged. "Right, you guys had the real experience."

 **"What?!"**

"Anyhow," Kakashi said, ignoring the shocked chorus, "You have some papers to sign." He produced four rather thick stacks of paper from... from... well, god only knows where and handed it to his students.

"Why are there four?" Naruto wondered, eyeing the extra stack suspiciously.

"Oh," Kakashi exclaimed and pointed at the second stack in Naruto's arms, nose already in his book, "These are mine. Fill them out, will you?"

He deftly ducked out of the way as the stack was chucked at his head. "You damn lazy ass! Do it yourself!" Naruto shouted.

Kakashi blinked lazily at him before grinning evilly, even visible with his mask on. "You know," he began, "I could always tell Hiashi to get his sword. He wouldn't question why."

"You wouldn't!" Naruto gasped and backed away in horror.

A smile. "Convince me to not to."

Grumbling and begrudgingly, Naruto went to retrieve Kakashi's papers.

"If there's a question about sexuality in it, I'll fill in "barren as the desert"," he muttered darkly.

 **XXXXXX**

"The atmosphere in here is kind of oppressive."

"Really?" Sasuke drawled in response to Hinata's observation. She just shrugged in response and got closer to Naruto.

The room on the third floor was filled with other chunin hopefuls, nearly all of them older than they were. Delegations from every major village and even of the smaller ones were present. The Konoha genin were surprised to see a team of Kumogakure. They weren't known for their good relations with Konoha. More so the opposite. The team from Grass was also a surprise. Not because they were on bad terms with Konoha or were considered too weak, it was because of the Kunoichi that was with them.

Naruto had locked eyes with her (but not really) and instantly knew that this was no genin, not even a woman. He had about a tenth of his own reserves (which was still around Kage level) and his eyes displayed the uncanny blood lust of a merciless killer. Hinata confirmed that there was indeed something off about him, she just couldn't really see it. For a second, Naruto was tempted to take off his blindfold, but decided against it. There would be time later. For now he would inform his father about this.

"Yo! You guys are here as well?"

Team 7 turned to see Kiba and his team walk over to them. Akamaru trotted ahead of all of them.

"So, your sensei let you enter," Sasuke huffed. He reached into his pouch and handed Naruto a 50 ryo note. The Uzumaki grinned like a loon.

Kiba scowled at Sasuke. "You bet on us not entering?"

The Uchiha shrugged and merely grunted. As Shino pushed up his shades in apparent indignation, Choji tried to pacify Kiba. All of them looked up when Team 1 crept into the room.

"Hey there," Ren said, waving once at them. He glanced at Kiba and made an annoyed noise through his teeth. Rend handed Naruto a hundred ryo note and glared at Kiba.

"You, too!?" Kiba shouted, trying to get a shot at the green eyed teen.

While Choji restrained him the other members of Team 1 came to stand by the group. Sai seemed extremely tense to Team 7 but they didn't comment on it. Shikamaru was his usual lazy self though they could see his hands twitch ever so often in his pockets. Hinata waved politely at her cousin as he and his team entered and walked over to them as well.

"Lady Hinata," Neji greeted her and bowed slightly to her. "A pleasure to see you have been entered as well."

"Likewise, Neji," Hinata responded with a smile.

"Good to see you," Naruto said and clapped his shoulder. He did so to purposefully annoy the Hyuuga. Physical contact in greeting was highly frowned upon within the clan.

Neji merely twitched. "Lord Uzumaki. A pleasure, I'm sure."

Naruto just laughed at him. Ever since Hinata had met her husband (not that anyone knew about that) she had resolved to become far stronger than anyone in her clan. Back then, she and Neji had not been on good terms and after a particularly nasty comment from Neji in regards to her mother, Hinata blew up on him in a very Naruto-like fashion and told him she'd hand his ass to him by the time she'd finish the academy. And that she did. Naruto remembered fondly how she slapped him hard enough to throw him out of the ring and through a wall.

Good ol' times...

"You ought to keep it down," a smooth voice drifted into their conversations and they all turned slightly to glare at the silver haired man that stood behind them. Immediately the two sensors in the group tensed. All of the genin signaled discreetly that they were ready.

"And you ought to be more careful about whom you approach so carelessly," Naruto whispered.

Every member of the group had a kunai close enough to the man to kill him in seconds. His eyes widened. Lifting his hands in a placating gesture into the air, he took a step back but was pushed forward again by both Sasuke and Ren as they closed in behind him.

"Too late, silver," Naruto growled, "Now you better talk. Why would you approach us? And who are you?"

In two swift movements the group had shifted and the man was pressed against the wall, Naruto had a hand on his throat and Hinata a finger hovering above his heart. Ren's blade was pressing against his side, ready to pierce his liver as the rest of the group shielded them from view while Sasuke cast a few genjutsu with his eyes so the rest wouldn't see them.

"Talk," Naruto commanded, the black light bleeding through his bandages. The man gulped.

 **XXXXXX**


	7. Chapter 7

**The Family**

 **A/N: Yeah, you thought this was dead! But hey, it is not!  
**

 **Primus2021: You know, I wouldn't have thought of that... I only ever played one Devil may Cry game so... yeah. Anyhow, there is a reason for Shiro to have white hair, you know? That wasn't a random decision. Just you wait until Jiraiya comes up!**

 **So, I tried to do the exams in one go but it got too long. We will have the rest in the next chapter!**

* * *

Kabuto felt like he had make an enormous mistake. These were supposed to be simple Genin, not those... well, _these_. These were scary. The one with the bandages gave him the same feel as Orochimaru often did. Raw _Power._ Naruto Uzumaki, heir to the Uzumaki clan and holder of a dojutsu that was not recorded anywhere else and a big mystery altogether. He didn't think it was possible, but through the teens bandages, _black_ light was kind off seeping. That, combined with a Byakugan fueled glare from a Hyuuga girl that aimed a finger at his heart had him sweating bullets. No one should have caught him out like that... Kabuto didn't think there was any sensor this good around. That also meant that they must have noticed his master!

Taking the risk, Kabuto's eyes strayed from the white haired teens face. It seemed that Orochimaru had already vacated the room and-

"Urgh!" he coughed as the air was driven out of him. A fist was buried deep into his gut, far deeper than necessary. Kabuto could feel his spinal chord ache from the force.

"You know," Naruto whispered, "You don't have to talk. We have our ways of getting the information out of you." He brought his free hand up to his eyes, tugging at the cloth that covered them. "And you aren't going to like it."

"And if that doesn't work, however unlikely that is," Ren continued, "we can always leave you to a Yamanaka. Either way, you are done with."

Sasuke tapped Hinata's back twice, then thrice a little faster. She nodded and leaned over to Naruto as Sasuke returned to keeping others away.

"Others have noticed," she whispered, "we should get him out of here."

Naruto nodded. "Right. We put him in a scroll and-"

"That won't be necessary!" a gruff voice exclaimed behind them.

In a puff of smoke that intercepted the genjutsu around them, a Jonin dressed in a black leather coat with a bandana covering his head and way to many scars in his face appeared together with a dozen chunin.

"With that, the first exam is concluded!" he barked at them.

But Naruto didn't let go of Kabuto just yet. He didn't trust the silver haired man. He of course knew Ibiki, he was and instructor at the academy from time to time, but it was also Ibiki who had taught them not to trust easily and always stay alert.

"All of you who have noticed the spy among us have passed!" Ibiki exclaimed, turning to look at all of the assembled genin. Some looked on in shock and bewilderment while others glanced into Kabuto's direction, still wary of him. "Those who haven't noticed will be escorted outside and may attend the next exam!" he continued.

Discretely, during Ibiki's speech, three ANBU moved into the group around Naruto. He had barely even sensed them. That's ANBU for you.

"We will take care of this now," spoke the man with the boar mask.

Naruto met his eyes and held his gaze for three unwavering seconds before passing Kabuto over to him. It wasn't until all three ANBU had their hands on the spy that Hinata took her hand back and Ren sheathed his sword.

Ibiki took notice of this and smirked. That was probably the best batch of genin he had seen in ages. As the ANBU vanished, he addressed the genin remaining in the room.

"All of you; you have either sensed or have been notified by your allies of the presence of someone who should not be in this room. A ninja must always be alert. There is no truly safe environment for us, for no environment is safe if we are there. We are ninja, we are far beyond human. But we must still trust, trust in our comrades, trust in our Kage. You who have trusted your comrades and doubted them still, you will be tested once more before being pitted against each other to determine which of you is worthy of being a chunin!" He raised his hand in a grand gesture. "You will-!"

"I'M HERE!"

Ibiki nearly bust a molar.

All the remaining genin tensed as a giant piece of black cloth materialized in the center of the room. Only three of them were stupid enough to move. In an instant, faster than most could blink, the team from Kiri was wrapped up tightly in snakes.

Shikamaru whimpered.

Standing there on the there bound genin, as scantly clad as ever, was Konoha's resident snake mistress, Mitarashi Anko. She grinned evilly at them.

"33 Genin?" she questioned, eyeing every ninja in the room. The Konoha ninja suppressed a shudder. "You must be getting soft, Ibiki!"

He ignored her jab at him. "You're early, Anko! I wasn't even finished yet!"

Anko waved her hand dismissively. "Details, details... Now! On to the second task, proctored by none other than the sexy ME! And a good dozen of you won't make it!"

Shikamaru whimpered once more. This was more than just troublesome.

* * *

Standing in front of the forest of death, Naruto sighed.

"I so don't want to go in there again..."

Sasuke grunted in agreement. Survival training in there had been hell and beyond. Hinata looked thoughtfully at the two tents that had been erected in front of the fence that surrounded the forest. "They have two types of scrolls in there and some folders I can't read. Both of them are the exact same number as the amount of teams that are left."

"Scrolls?" Naruto wondered aloud. "Can you see any seals on them?"

She shook her head. "Aside from the symbol for heaven and earth they are the same. No seals on the outside. But the insides are laced with chakra."

"The folders?" Sasuke asked, his eyes scanning the people around them for abnormalities.

"Nondescript from the outside, no chakra on the inside. Seems like information to me," Hinata responded as she deactivated her Byakugan with a nod, that had been directed at Neji, who had been doing the same.

"Was there anything in the forest?"

She turned to Naruto and shook her head. "Nothing within my range and neither in Neji's, or so it seems."

Naruto shrugged, eyes staring intently at the proctor as if to gleam off her body posture what was going on. "She's tense," he told them. "If she has anything to do with the spy and that overpowered Grass fake-kunoichi, it's gotta be bad."

Team 1 walked up to them, Sai looking visibly less distressed as he had in the exam room before. Shikamaru was hiding behind Ren so that Anko wouldn't spot him. Naruto snorted at the sight of the shadow user cowering behind the slightly taller ninja.

"So," Ren spoke up, green eyes fixed on the teams of Kumo and Grass, "Anything you wanna share?"

They had come to the conclusion that they wouldn't fight each other until the finals or unless it would be absolutely necessary to advance.

Naruto nodded. "The red head over there," he pointed at the team from Suna, "is a Jinjuriki. One-Tails, I believe. The fox isn't the talkative sort."

"Oh? What did he say?" Ren inquired.

"Nothing really, he just snorted once when I asked him how strong the other one is."

Ren chuckled. "So one snort, one tail, huh?"

Naruto smirked. "That's my interpretation, yes."

The fox and Naruto were not really on speaking terms. The biju had made the mistake of locking eyes with Naruto and... well, the fox was embarrassed and angry. Naruto promised to find a way to get him out of the seal and let him devour Madara but until then, the fox refused to talk to him, like an upset child. It amused Naruto to no end, seeing the fox demon, immortal being and centuries old, pout like a child whom you took candy from. And though he knew the biju's name, he also knew that Kurama wouldn't want to be addressed as such. Given their tender relationship, Naruto refrained from calling him by name.

Though _fur ball_ didn't seem to be a hit either.

Ren nodded. "Avoid at all cost, got it."

"Listen up, sweethearts!" Anko's voice carried over all of their hushed conversations. "I will now explain the second part of the exam!"

A small earthen stand shot up under Anko's feet and raised her above them all. Those close enough could see under her terribly short skirt.

"In ten minutes you will all enter Training Ground 44, or as most ninja here call it, _The forest of Death_! Before you enter, each team will receive a scroll, either a heavens scroll or an earth scroll, and a folder containing information on a target! To pass this exam, you need to be in possession of both scrolls and need to _recruit_ your target into your team! Both the scrolls and the target need to be safely brought to a tower somewhere in the forest!

"There a twelve towers in total inside the forest and all but the one you need contains hostile forces, maybe even your target. If one of your team members dies, you fail! If you fail to recruit your target, you fail! If your target is heavily injured, you fail! If you can't bring both scrolls to the right tower, you fail! If you open them before reaching the tower, you fail!"

Anko grinned down at the thoughtful genin below her. She spotted Shikamaru and grinned.

"If you don't reach the tower within four days-" she hurled a kunai that would have grazed Shikamaru's cheek, if he hadn't leaned sideways and caught it by the handle, having flickered behind the Nara.

"What a party pooper, Maru!" she whined, pouting that her attempt to draw blood had failed and instead leaned against his back, making sure to press her assets flush against his back. "I thought you loved me!" she sniffled as Shikamaru tried to escape out of her hold. Suddenly he froze when she bit his earlobe.

With a strangled grunt, he vanished into the ground and popped up behind Ren a second later. "Keep her away from me!" he hissed, holding his (sexually) abused ear.

Naruto's eyebrows rose. That was no body flicker. It had looked the part, but the chakra flow was different. Very interesting...

Conversation broke out again and many choose to ignore Anko's display as the chunin at hand began calling out the teams to distribute the scrolls and folders. Hinata noted that Team 7 and Team 1 had the same scroll so wouldn't have to battle it out if push came to shove. When Sasuke opened their target file, he blushed and snapped it shut.

Naruto looked at him strangely. "Who is it?"

Sasuke looked up, opened his mouth and closed it again. Looking down he said, "Its Haku."

* * *

"Okay, I suppose that is one of these 'towers', isn't it?"

Sasuke snorted. "Very observant, Naruto."

"Sod off..."

"Guys-... I can't see inside."

Both Sasuke and Naruto stopped glaring at each other and turned to the frowning Hinata.

Naruto nodded slowly. "Seals then. Let me take a look."

As Naruto took of the bandages, Sasuke wisely looked anywhere but his eyes. Naruto's black eyes racked over the tower, his golden pupils seemed to vibrate momentarily before he shut them again with a sigh.

"Urgh," he groaned in annoyance, "I can't do that yet, sorry. But I can tell that it is infused to the wall and the ground around the building."

Sasuke nodded, his Sharingan watching the flickering of chakra in the building. "So you can't counter it then?"

Naruto shook his head. "No, dad could see what seals they used but I can't focus good enough yet."

"No worries," Hinata said, "Even if I can't see inside, we will simply sweep through it. They shouldn't be able to look through your illusions, Naruto." She smiled at him.

"Alright, let's go."

Team 7 had been in the forest for about two hours before they found one of these towers. They briefly crossed paths with Team 1 but ultimately headed in different directions. The tower they found was a big round building which thinned out the further up it went. The roof was a pyramid of jade and from the outside there were no windows visible. The only entrance appeared to be the giant green door at the foot of the tower. So far as Naruto could discern it with his eyes, the walls were inlaid with seals, constantly flooding them with chakra. It made it impossible for Hinata to look past the first inch of brick wall.

But they refused to go in through the front door. Naruto frowned at the green wooden entrance from a tree at the very edge of the clearing the tower stood in. Sasuke was trying his best at digging a tunnel with pure earth manipulation but such extensive use was not trained in the academy and neither of them had a primary affinity for earth in the first place.

Sasuke appeared on the branch above him, hands still covered in dirt. "It's too dense. Without an actual earth affinity, I can't get the tunnel far enough."

Naruto looked thoughtful for a moment and the up at Sasuke. "How far did you get?" he asked.

"About halfway across the clearing, I guess."

Naruto smirked. "I can do the rest!"

"You have a wind affinity, you idiot. That makes you even less likely to get any farther than me."

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Just shut up and lead me to the tunnel entrance."

* * *

Naruto snorted. "Good thing you didn't become a construction worker."

"Really?" Sasuke kicked away the coverage and dropped in, about seven meters deep.

The tunnel was just high enough for Naruto to walk in a crouch. It was wide enough to accommodate both of them side by side but aside from that it was just a hole in the ground.

"Okay," Naruto said when they reached the end of the tunnel, "I can work with that."

Sasuke frowned. "And how would you do that? The earth here is way more dense. I can barely part it anymore."

As to answer that question, Naruto slipped of his blindfold. "You might wanna step back," he told Sasuke.

The Uchiha appeared unimpressed but stepped back anyways. Naruto exhaled and opened his eyes.

 _ **"Void!"**_

Instantly, the earth before him was consumed and banished into the dimension in between as the black hole expanded into the wall. Gritting his teeth Naruto compressed the sphere so it wouldn't destabilize the earth above the tunnel. With another sharp exhale, Naruto's completely black eyes lit up golden and the sphere moved forward, smoothly cutting through the ground.

Sasuke knew better than to break Naruto's concentration. Instead he radioed for Hinata to come to them from her watch point in the trees. After five minutes of slowly pushing the sphere forwards, Hinata tapped his shoulder and he instantly stopped.

"One meter and we'd reach the wall," she said, her Byakugan active. Naruto nodded and took the solider pill she offered him. He sighed and reapplied the blindfold. Normal men would have died twenty times over with the amount of chakra Naruto had just spent.

"Hope we won't do this for every tower...," he mumbled as he inspected the wall of dirt before him. With a few swift swipes the dirt was moved out of the way and the dull gray stone of the tower became visible. With another sigh he set to work, placing a big sheet of paper against the stone and forming a singular handseal. Chakra flowed from the wall into the paper, forming visible symbols on it.

Naruto inspected them thoughtfully before he pulled a brush from his jacket and swished it over the lines a few times until they began to change form. The chakra began to waver, almost as if it had run out of supply and the lines flickered more and more until they blinked out.

"Right, that takes care of that." He turned to Hinata who nodded and activated her Byakugan.

She shook her head. "Haku isn't inside."

Sasuke appeared only the slightest bit disappointed.

* * *

"It just _has_ to be this tower!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "You said that with the other two before this one already. Stop jinxing it."

Naruto shrugged in response. "A man can dream."

The sigh of relief from Hinata had both of them spin towards her perch on the tree. "It isn't blocking my vision," she told them.

"Yes, dammit!" Naruto cheered. "Finally we-"

"Haku isn't inside."

Naruto's fist impacted hard enough with the tree to break it in half. "Fuck this, we will hunt for a scroll first."

Sasuke nodded and unclenched his fists. "I second that."

"No objections from me," Hinata said, sighing as she deactivated her eyes.

Finding another team turned out to be harder than finding these towers. They ambled over the bloody and very sandy remains of a team from Amegakure, their bodies mostly torn apart beyond recognition. If not for the bloody headband that was embedded too deep into one of their separated heads, Naruto couldn't have figured who they might have been.

"That is.. uh, harsh," Naruto commented as they passed.

Hinata nodded, a little paler than before.

They headed east where they knew a team from Kumo to be. It was also the opposite direction of where the weird grass kunoichi/cross dresser entered. Hinata suddenly dropped out of the trees onto the forest floor. Naruto and Sasuke touched down behind her a second later.

"Something up?" Sasuke asked her.

"There's a team up ahead," Hinata said, "But they're too far for me to tell which village. And... they are approaching a tower."

"Alright!" Naruto exclaimed. "We're gonna ambush them! Wanna do this silently or just blow them up?"

Rolling his eyes, Sasuke thumped his head. "Idiot. We are ninja."

Hinata giggled. "Really, Naruto. There is only one way to do this."

"Exactly. Lets blow them up." Sasuke groaned at Naruto's antics.

* * *

The three ninja from Taki sat in a genjutsu behind a bolder close to the tower. They had acquired their scroll in a skirmish with a team from Iwa and were now trying to figure out a way to get into the heavily guarded building in front of them. One of them, the woman leaning against the stone, was wounded. Bleeding from a deep gash in her side she was trying to stay awake. Their first aid skill was lacking, if not nonexistent. High above them in a tree, Naruto scowled as he watched them converse.

All three members of Team 7 could easily peer through the weak genjutsu the enemy team was hiding behind. "Still wanna blow them up?" Sasuke asked.

Rolling his eyes, Naruto sighed. "No... they wouldn't even put up a fight. Let's just knock em out."

Hinata smiled kindly. Avoiding bloodshed was still a favorable way for her to do most things. She looked at her two companions. "Boys? Whom of you will cast the genjutsu?"

Naruto shook his head. "Nah, I would just have knocked em out. Maybe make sure that the girl doesn't bleed out. Sasuke?"

"On it."

The Uchiha vanished in a swirl of leaves and appeared soundlessly atop the bolder. The three nin below didn't even notice him as Naruto had cloaked him in a genjutsu of his own.

His Sharingan swirled madly as he touched down between them, meeting the wide eyes of the wounded kunoichi. She opened her mouth to scream but was frozen in Sasuke's gaze before she could even make a sound. The smile on Sasuke's lips was a cruel sneer as he lifted a finger to his lips in a silencing gesture.

"Fuck...," one of them cursed as he eyed the multiple balconies that were patrolled by many guards. "We need to sneak inside. Shiina can't wait much longer."

The other, broader man grunted. "Go on ahead, I'll distract them."

Apparently their target was inside the tower. Sasuke took a second to look around. Besides the wounded woman, Shiina, was a bloodied bag. Sasuke was about to open it when the men to his left slowly rose into a crouch. Because he couldn't let them get away, Sasuke jabbed a chakra filled finger into the mans neck, a technique he had been taught by Hinata. Before the bigger man could even hear the thud, Sasuke had him a knife point. The man froze.

"Talk," Sasuke barked out harshly.

 **(I ask of you to imagine this being said in a very Venom Snake-like fashion in the same chokehold position)**

The man growled but as he glanced at his two companions, he relented. "What do you want? Take the scrolls but leave them alone."

Sasuke nodded. "In exchange for both scrolls we are willing to offer medical aid."

"What?" the man exclaimed. "Why would you do that?"

Naruto shimmered into existence in front of the wounded woman. "Despite all, this is still a test. We don't need to kill you if you don't pose a serious threat." He pulled a scroll from his pouch and handed it to Hinata as she appeared at his side.

The man laughed dryly. "Are we that weak?"

Sasuke grunted. "Yes."

"Ouch," Naruto laughed, "Harsh, Sasuke. But yes, you three are no match for us. This tower there, you wouldn't have made it past the door at full strength."

There was a hiss coming from Shiina as Hinata applied a disinfectant to the wound. "Hold still," she instructed.

When Hinata finished off tying the bandage around the kunoichi's side, Naruto crouched in front of the only remaining conscious ninja. "Here's the deal," he said, "We'll take the scrolls and I'll contact someone to get you out of here." The man couldn't do much else than grudgingly accept. This was still better than dying in here.

Sasuke was observing the guards that patrolled the tower. The guards appeared to be no ninja as far as he could tell but he wouldn't underestimate number of men skilled at handling a sword were always a danger, even to shinobi. Hinata walked up to his side with a small smile.

"Haku is indeed inside this tower," she said.

"Called it!" Naruto shouted from behind.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Then let's go. We will just walk inside, genjutsu and all. Or is there anything that would stop us?" he asked, turning to the other two.

Naruto observed the building for a moment before shaking his head. "No, I don't see anything. Which is strange, considering that every tower before this had at least some kind of defense."

Hinata was intensely studying the building when she suddenly frowned. "There's another team inside," she said. "They are entering on the other side."

"How strong do they seem?" Naruto asked.

"They have enough chakra to be a danger," Hinata reported. "And it seems that their target is in here as well. The only other person in there that doesn't seem to be a guard is a woman that is currently chatting with Haku."

Sasuke nodded. "Can you read their lips from this distance?"

Hinata shook her head. "No, but I might be able to if we enter."

"Alright," Naruto said, cracking his knuckles, "Let's go then."

* * *

Haku covered a yawn that interrupted her conversation with Mari, the blonde woman that was sitting in front of her, nursing a cup of tea.

"Are you quite alright, my dear?" she asked, earning a smile from Haku.

Mari was at least twice as old as her and was here for the same reason as her. Much like her, Haku had been approached by the Hokage and was asked to participate in the chunin exams. And because the ones that had taken her and Zabuza in would be involved in it, she agreed easily enough. It was now her task to become _recruited_ into the team. She had been instructed to resist initially and make it harder for them. But she knew that she couldn't do that. That of course had absolutely nothing to do with the Uchiha that would come for her. No, of course not.

The team that had the mission to retrieve Mari was, according to her, the the team her little brother was part off. She worried that he wouldn't make it, seeing that he wasn't as strong as his teammates.

"I am but a bit tried, thank you. And do not worry," Haku assured her, "If his teammates are truly his friends, he will be fine."

She sighed. "I really hope so... Well, do you think they will clash with the team that is coming for you?"

"I am not sure," Haku told her. "Their objective in here is retrieving me, and they do not stray from their task... usually."

"Unless of course you would show a little more leg to this Sasuke you keep on talking about," Mari said, giggling lightly.

"Mari!" Haku exclaimed, her cheeks reddening just a tad. If not for her ice release, they might have been a fair bit redder.

The older woman sighed. "I can sense them approach you know? And one of them has so much chakra its downright unsettling."

Haku gave a wan smile. "Yes, Naruto is a bit unique in that."

"Will they even find us?" Mari asked. "This place is a maze."

"They will," Haku said, "Nothing can possibly remain hidden from Team 7. It is why they are a team, or so I am told."

Mari smiled before it slipped into a frown. "Dear kami... how much chakra does this friend of yours have?"

"That is not my place to say," Haku said with a small smile.

* * *

It was almost ridiculous, seeing how easy it was to get inside the tower. The guard did wonder why the door opened and no one stepped in but chalked it up to the wind. Now Team 7 was simply walking through the seemingly endless hallways of the tower, lead by Hinata and her Byakugan. Naruto could but shake his head as they walked past another guard. Genjutsu were simply unfair. And Naruto had to begrudgingly admit that Sasuke was scarily good at them. He even fooled the security cameras, which was a feat worthy of noting. Sending chakra through the light that the camera took in and altering the picture that the lens captured. Naruto didn't think he could do that.

"Are we there yet?" he asked Hinata who was walking in front of him.

She shook her head. "It is yet a long way to go. The hallways here stretch and intertwine for a few kilometers. It will take some time to walk all the way."

"I still think would could just go though the walls," Naruto grumbled. "It's not like they could stop us."

"Shut up," Sasuke drawled. "We are doing this quietly. I am sure Haku has been told to offer some sort of resistance and we can not deal with that with three hundred guards on our heel."

Naruto snorted. "We both know that she certainly won't resist you, Uchiha."

Sasuke didn't answer but Naruto could feel the genjutsu he was applying to his face in order to hide his blush, earning another snort.

Hinata suddenly stopped, causing Naruto to walk into her. Smiling he pulled her back into him. "Something the matter, Hina?"

While she blushed and Sasuke rolled his eyes, the other team that had entered the tower was rounding the corner in front of them. They stopped suddenly and the oldest of them signaled something in a sign language that the Konoha nin didn't understand. "They can sense us," Hinata said looking back at Naruto. "Or at least I think they can."

Nodding, Naruto stepped in front of her an took off his bandages. He peered directly into the older genin's eyes, causing them to glaze over for a second before he shook his head. "A sensor," Naruto said, "not a very good one but he can feel the genjutsu around us. He also thinks he should have gone to the bathroom before all this. That and he is self-conscious about his penis."

Sasuke rolled his eyes again. "Do you really have to mention that?"

Naruto shrugged. "Makes me feel less guilty about knowing this shit."

"Well?" Hinata asked them, still watching the team silently communicate. "What now?"

"Wanna take them out?" Naruto asked.

A grin worked its way onto the Uchiha's face. "It has been quite some time since we had a real fight."

Cracking his knuckles, Naruto grinned as well and drew his sword. "Nice. I suggest non-lethal force. That is a team from Kumo, we are currently trying for an alliance with them and the old man would hit me over the head if I messed it up."

While it was true that people died during this exam, the actions taken by a jinchuriki always had a greater backlash than the actions of your simple genin. If Naruto attacked someone it was interpreted as a direct move under the order of the Hokage. Shiro hammered that home more than once with a swift kick to the head. Naruto always wondered how his father could be so lazy while being clan head. Hopefully he could be as well and spend all his time with Hinata and have... _fun_. Yes... this was a nice thought. A thought he was jostled from when Sasuke dropped the genjutsu. He glared at him.

The team from Kumo didn't really flinch but Sasuke's Sharingan could still see them tense. He, too, drew a kunai as the youngest of the enemy team did. To further unsettle the young ninja, he did so in the exact same speed and motion, carefully projecting a terrifying mirror imagine to him. He didn't hide the smirk that caused the unsettled expression of the boy.

Naruto steeped forwards lazily. "Now, we doing this or what?" he asked them in a mocking tone. Hinata was reminded of Kakashi a little when Naruto acted like that. Shiro would smack him over the head for that.

The oldest of them, the sensor with the black bandana and the typical black and white armoring of the Kumo shinobi, stood and drew a short sword from his back. "Konoha, huh?" he spat in a venomous tone.

"Indeed," Naruto drawled, "But do please remember that we are not the ones that were responsible for you uncle's death."

The man tensed, eyes widening. "H-How!?"

"Wouldn't you like to know, Mori?" Naruto questioned, his voice terrifyingly cool and yet teasing. "Oh, and do not worry. About your _small_ problem, that is. No one is ever going to see it, after all."

Mori sneered at him with hate in his eyes before suddenly moving forward, followed by the kunoichi of the team and the hesitant younger man. While Naruto engaged the charging man, Hinata intercepted the path of the kunoichi and Sasuke flickered right in front of the younger ninja, his crimson eyes glowing dangerously.

The young man flinched away, escaping Sasuke's blade by pure chance before he managed to break himself out of his shock and kicked with both legs at Sasuke. The Uchiha blocked effortlessly but the young man merely pushed himself away from him and drew several kunai from a pouch once he landed.

"You will lose, boy," Sasuke goaded him, "There is nothing you can do to defeat me." That was, of course, a lie. Sasuke could see that his opponent had enough chakra to at least do some damage. But mind games were simply his forte. That and they had to take them out without crippling or killing them. That sadly meant that more than ninety percent of his arsenal were out. So... stress-knockout. He grinned evilly.

* * *

Shiro sat in front of Kabuto, who appeared to be perfectly content with his situation. That, so the white haired man knew, would soon change. He hadn't said a word to the boy and neither had the silver haired boy tried to say anything. No one could say he tried, but for his morality's sake, Shiro could at least claim to not outright have broken him.

"Now that we have established that you aren't cooperating," he began," Your life has been forfeit. Goodbye."

That got, of course, a reaction out of Kabuto, whose eyebrows rose in confusion. But when he saw that Shiro was undoing the bandages around his eyes, he smirked. "You think your eyes can break me?" he asked mockingly, "Do your worst, but all it will result in is me studying these wondrous eyes of yours."

Shiro, eyes yet closed, smiled almost gently at him before laying down the cloth on the table between them. "Dream on," he said and opened his eyes.

Kabuto's body seized up and his eyes widened. He stopped breathing and, for a millisecond, his whole body stopped, his heart, the blood in his veins, the bio electricity in his brain. For one terrifying moment Kabuto ceased to exist, he died and disappeared. For one brief moment he was staring into an eternal abyss, his final resting place. Then something grasped whatever there was left of him. It tore him apart, faster than he could scream and yet so agonizingly slow that he could feel how his grasp on himself was slipping, his very soul was being taken from him and he could do nothing to change that.

Once his heart beat again, it immediately seized up again, the muscle tearing as if it had been under an inhuman strain. Kabuto's eyes rolled back into his head, blood leaking from them, as well as his nose and mouth. He fell off his chair with a heavy thud, a pool of blood collecting under his dead body.

Shiro stood and left the room without another word.

* * *

Hinata exhaled and drove her chakra laced index and middle finger into the kunoichi's shoulder. The arm went slack immediately and she tried to knee Hinata's face but the Hyuuga merely used the attack as leverage to propel herself overhead, twist midair and jab another chakra laced finger in the girl's other shoulder. With both arms slack she couldn't elbow her way out of the choke-hold Hinata, now standing behind her, held her in.

Twisting the girl in her grasp, Hinata forced her to face Sasuke who, with a brief glance, cast one of his genjutsu on the kunoichi.

It was just a small one, there was no time for something elaborate, but it would make this far easier for her. Sasuke was already throwing his opponent through the hallway again when Hinata was caught by the kunoichi's elbow. Apparently she had undone the brief paralysis. Rigorous training minimized the damage and the air remained in her lungs where she needed it. The glint of a blade alerted Hinata to remove her hands and jump back.

A short blade, a tanto, glinted in her opponents hand and had left a shallow cut in the girl's skin where Hinata's hands had restraint her. "I'm Juri," she growled, "and I will take you down."

"My name is Hinata." She inclined her head, even going so far as to avert her eyes, which was a taunt that struck the prideful ones the hardest. Judging by the snarl it drew from Juri, Hinata had succeeded in angering her. The genjutsu was messing with her sense of depth, the cut in her own skin had been an accident. "And you have already lost."

The girl shrieked and flashed forward, far faster than she had moved before and Hinata lost a hair to the blade. Juri's knee moved in to catch her face so Hinata decided to do some damage. A palm strike laced with a fair amount of chakra obliterated the nerves and chakra pathways in and around the knee joint. Screaming in pain but still managing to land on her other leg, Hinata's opponent began a sequence of hand seals that were too fast for Hinata to observe and before she could stop her, Juri breathed out her jutsu.

 _ **"Fire Release: Fire Dragon Flame Bullet!"**_

Hinata's eyes, as they were displayed by the genjutsu, widened. This was a high level technique and a very powerful one at that. She used the Headhunter Jutsu about thrice as fast as she ever had and dove into the earth. Her hair barely avoided being set ablaze and the stone overhead became so hot that Hinata was forced to move farther away. She observed how the kunoichi immediately ended the jutsu and slammed a palm into her knee. It began to heal at a speed that Hinata had not expected. She moved up, emerging underneath Juri just as the girl used the body flicker to move out of the way.

Hinata did not look in her direction when she said, "You will lose, little girl." It was a shallow insult, given that she wasn't all that bigger than her, but Hinata was definitely more developed than Juri. The insult apparently struck a nerve, because the sneer on her face was absolutely furious. Good, that had cost her any semblance of restraint and a fair amount of concentration. Now-

Hinata ducked when Sasuke threw his opponent, the younger ninja, at Juri. Apparently, she just happened to be in the way. She glared mildly at him. He merely shrugged before he, too, was forced to duck out of the way.

"Don't throw other guys at Hinata!" Naruto hollered at the Uchiha, who had moved out of the way of Mori, the unconscious sensor with the small penis. Great, now Hinata couldn't get that bit of information out of her head. She sighed.

Sasuke strode to her side, head high and this smile that screamed holier-than-thou etched into his features. "Surrender, you have no chance of winning."

The young ninja whimpered and Hinata could only imagine the genjutsu Sasuke had put the poor boy though. "We can't!" he stammered, "I-... we need to get my sister out of this tower!"

Juri nodded vigorously, eyes darting from her to the unconscious Mori. Naruto yawned as he walked up and tapped her elbow thrice with a small nod towards his opponent. Hm, he was still conscious, apparently. She couldn't tell with her Byakugan.

"I'm going to tell you how we will do this," Naruto began, so very reminiscent of Kakashi, it was as if the man himself was here, "We won't kill you, that would be pretty bad for the village, given that I _am_ a jinchuriki." Hinata was almost surprised when she saw just how pale the two before them got. "Thing is, I don't want you in our way, so you will give us your scrolls and withdraw from the exams. I will ring in someone to escort you out and you can try again in half a year. How does that sound?"

Juri's face soured but both she and her younger teammate said nothing, instead looking towards Mori, who was probably their leader.

"Fine," the man said, rising to his feet with a definite limp. Naruto tended to aim for the legs when he wasn't really serious about fighting someone. He reached into his vest and chucked two scrolls at them. Almost immediately, they were swallowed by a black hole that opened up for maybe just a second. She glanced back at Naruto, who was trying not to show the strain this had caused him. Hopefully this had sufficiently cowed them from trying to fool her team.

"Bad idea," Sasuke spoke harshly, his Sharingan glowing crimson as he glared down Mori, "You cannot fool us. If you don't want to end up in the same place as your fake scrolls, you better cooperate or I'll show you just why the Uchiha are a name you should learn to fear."

"The Hyuuga are no less lenient in such matters," Hinata spoke up. It was true, after all. Her father would have her hide if she let herself be fooled, by Kumo no less.

"Give us the scrolls before we take them by force," Naruto grumbled roughly, though Hinata knew that the rasp wasn't added through anger, but by the strain this quick opening of a hole had done to his head. The strain on his reserves where, of course, there but not noticeable to him. It was more like the amount of focus and power it required from his eyes.

"Give them the god damn scroll already!" Juri shouted as she was cradling her whimpering team mate (what the actual frickin' hell did Sasuke do to him?) to her chest, "Yuske can't put up a fight anymore!"

Mori growled in superior distaste and unsealed the scroll from a seal at his wrist, chucking it as hard as he could at Naruto, who caught it without so much as looking in his direction, all the while grumbling something that sounded suspiciously like "Konoha scum!" under his breath.

Sasuke turned his back on them all. "Was that so hard?"

Juri snarled at him but said nothing. The younger ninja, Yuske, suddenly spoke up. "Wait! My sister! We have to get her out of here!"

Hinata looked at Naruto, who shrugged. She didn't need to look at Sasuke to know that he at least looked annoyed. With a sigh, Hinata faced the Kumo Team. She straightened her back, held her head high and a strong yet benevolent expression came over her beautiful features. It was a stance of authority, of royalty and it seemed to take young Yuske aback because he stared at her with wide, awestruck eyes.

She graced him with a gentle smile and he blushed an alarming shade of red. Even Mori seemed to stare at her for a second before scowling again. Juri just scoffed, but even she had been taken aback. Hinata extended a hand to them, an inviting gesture. "We shall offer our assistance. Do not fear, your sister will be escorted out of here as well." Her voice was soft, yet it held a power of command that radiated from her very being. "That I promise you as heiress of the Hyuuga Clan."

Mori nodded, apparently before he could help it and Yuske beamed, nodding rapidly. Hinata chuckled, the young boy was adorable. She turned back to her Team mates. "Let us go."

Naruto produced a seal from his vest and held it out to the three ninja from Kumo. "Take this and hide. Someone will come to escort you out." Just before Mori could begrudgingly take it, Naruto pulled it out of his reach. "And don't think about running off to try and get his sister. You are officially out and you couldn't possibly run from the man that will come to retrieve you."

Mori growled and snatched the seal out of Naruto's hand and threw it at Yuske, whom it hit square in the face. Shaking his head, Naruto walked back to her and nudged her shoulder with his.

"Come on," he told her, "Can't let duck butt's sweetheart wait."

Sasuke glowered at Naruto the entire way down the corridors.

* * *

Haku jumped in her chair when not the door opened, but the wall opposite of it was absorbed in a ball of nothingness. Within the pure black, two crimson eyes appeared, quickly scanning the room until they found hers. She blushed when they once roamed down and then up her body again. Then two eyes of gold appeared just a tad above what had to be Sasuke's Sharingan and she immediately averted her eyes to the silvery white glow of what was Hinata's Byakugan that hovered in the darkness at Naruto's side.

The black squere vanished, revealing Team 7 to her and Mari, who had jumped into a combat stance. "You... defeated my brother's team," she said carefully.

"We did," Hinata confirmed.

"But they are unharmed and probably already out of the forest," Naruto added.

Naruto and Hinata conversed with Mari, but Haku's eyes were captivated by Sasuke's eyes, that bore into hers unblinkingly as he stalked up t her.

"It's been a while," he told her quietly.

She nodded. "That is has, Lord Sasuke." She added the title out of nervousness.

It caused him to chuckle. "Sasuke. Just Sasuke, Haku." He sat himself on the edge of the table, looming over her with his attentive gaze. "We are here to recruit you." She nodded again and he bent down closer to her, so much that she could feel his breath tickle her cheeks. "Will you come with me?"

Haku had been instructed to resist, to flee from them even and cost them a few hours of time, but she didn't. As Sasuke's Sharingan devolved in front of her eyes to his eyes, the color of blackened flint, she didn't smile coyly and body flickered away. She didn't resist, didn't flee.

"Yes," she said breathlessly.

"Good," Sasuke hummed, one hand pushing a lock of her raven hair behind her ear.

She held her breath, awaiting something more when someone suddenly cleared their throat. Haku jolted backwards and nearly toppled over her chair while Sasuke almost flickered into the next wall. It prompted Naruto, who had been watching them intensely, to laugh loudly. She became aware of the genjutsu that fell off her and got to see the immense red color on Sasuke's face behind his hand. He had played her! She pouted angrily at him.

"Oh that was gold!" Naruto snickered. "Thank kami for my photographic memory!"

Now she blushed hotly as well. Maybe she could still run?

* * *

They sent Mari off with an ANBU, Sasuke said it might have been Yugao, and Naruto privately knew that it had been her, given that she guarded the house from time to time when no one was there. He watched how Haku trailed after Sasuke while she tried not to look like she was following him with her eyes. Well, Sasuke tried to do the same.

He nudged Hinata and she smiled lightly as she, too, was watching the two of them as they tracked their way deeper into the forest, towards the center where the last few towers and hopefully their goal was located.

"We still have two days left to reach the tower," Naruto said as the sun began to set. "We better make sure to rest."

Sasuke grunted in affirmative and descended down onto the forest floor. It was always his job to secure the perimeter, given his skill with the ninja wire. Naruto and Hinata meanwhile sought out a suitable tree to camp in. Other teams, those not from Konoha, were most likely camping out on the ground but the Genin of Konoha had learned the hard way that that was a very very bad idea. Animals, _monstrous_ animals, roamed this forest and Team 7 had already encountered a few of them but knew to avoid most of them. Hinata found them a tree that would be suited to carry to tents that they could wedge in between the branches.

Two tents exactly. Before Sasuke could so much open his mouth, Naruto and Hinata had retreated to one of the tents, both winking at him and Haku.

* * *

He glanced at Haku, who appeared perfectly at ease, preparing drinkable water for them. "It's nice, isn't it?" she asked, probably referring to Naruto and Hinata's strange relationship.

"Mhm," he grunted, because he couldn't bother to deny it. It was nice, really. As cold as he was, watching Naruto and Hinata interact spurred something akin to jealousy in his heart. Because even though Naruto had lost his family, he managed to regain it. So much unlike him, who had lost his whole clan to his own brother.

Some days, when he was alone in the deserted Uchiha district, he remembered how he had met Itachi for the final time. Itachi had told him to hate him, to let his anger fuel him and as much as these words burned at him, fueling the flames of anger and hate, Sasuke remembered the single tear that slipped though Itachi's mask. It was what haunted him for years now. His brother had told him that he had done it to prove his strength. So why was he crying?

The guilty needed to be brought to justice.

But... what was Itachi really guilty of?

Sasuke may have only been a child back then, but even he noticed the tension rising in the clan shortly before it all happened. He never found out why, never found out how, so he resolved to bring Itachi to justice and to ask him, why he had been crying that night.

"Sasuke?"

Haku's voice startled him, he had been adrift in memories. "Yes?" he asked.

"Where should I sleep?"

He looked at her strangely. "The tent, of course."

Haku nodded. "And you?"

"The tent, naturally."

She nodded again. "Of course," she said, smiling lightly and retreating towards the tent. She held the flap open for him. "Are you coming?" she called out.

Sasuke heard Naruto snicker. He would kick his ass once this exam was over, that he swore!

* * *

Team 7, with the newly recruited Haku, had come by two more towers before shit went bad. Really bad. It was just as Hinata spotted Team 1 and Team 9, conversing in some sort of camp, when suddenly a snake was summoned directly in front of them. But it wasn't just any snake, no no, it was a snake that would have dwarfed some of the towers in the forest in length and was as thick as a giant tree. Sickly blue, almost purple scales with black markings gleamed in the sun that the foliage let fall through and it's giant yellow eyes was focused on them.

Sasuke barely managed to substitute when it's giant, open maw was closing in on him and Naruto.

"Where the hell did that come from!?" the Uchiha shouted, already running though a bunch of handseals for a fireball.

Naruto had the misfortune of being swallowed whole by the giant beast and had to travel to the mark that was placed on Hinata. There was no time for awkwardness now. Hinata immediately flickered away whilst Naruto ripped the bandages of his eyes and screamed at the top of his lungs, **" _VOID!_ "**

But the snake was fast, it dove out of the way before the Black hole could swallow a hefty portion of it's head and lunged down at Sasuke, who inhaled deeply and spit out a humongous fireball, one big enough to incinerate the snake as a whole but the beast yet again managed to avoid the attack, slinging it's body around the trees to pull itself out of harms way.

"It's a summon!" Hinata shouted, "A normal snake couldn't have grown this big or intelligent!"

"A _SNAKE_ summon!?" Sasuke asked, his voice reaching a pitch higher than ever before. Kami above, that was not good at all.

Haku appeared in a gust of icy wind at his side and immediately launched spears of ice at the snake, using one handed hand signs. The attack struck but merely served to draw the snake's attention to them.

"It's scales are too thick," she sighed. "We need a lightning or wind jutsu."

Sasuke took her hand. "We need to get out of here!" he implored urgently.

She looked at him in confusion but followed his lead after Hinata and Naruto. "We could have defeated it," she told him, "Was there a special reason to flee?"

"That is a summoned snake," Sasuke responded, "and the only one who holds that contract is Orochimaru, one of the three Sannin and traitor pf the leaf." They reached Naruto and Hinata on a tree branch. "He is one of the strongest ninja that came out of Konoha. We have no chance to survive an encounter with him."

Naruto groaned. "I managed to send a message to dad, but it will take a while for him to reach us?"

"You can't teleport us out?" Sasuke asked hopefully, though he already suspected the answer.

"No, it would probably kill us. I can't use dad's seal." He scratched his head, looking back into the forest where the snake was breaking though trees to get to them. "You would die and me and Hinata would be lost in the dimension without a way out. Quick, Ren's team and Neji's aren't far."

There was no more time for words, the snake was already felling the tree they stood on. They made a mad dash towards Neji, who had spotted them some time ago and was gathering Ren and the others. Hinata barely ducked out of the way of an exploding tree when they broke into the small clearing the others were gathered in.

"Everyone! Blow that thing away!" Naruto shouted, tumbling through the foliage closely followed by Sasuke and Haku.

The moment the snake broke though, a mirage of attacks was launched at it. Ren lashed out with his lightning charged blade, cutting the very air and unleashing a far reaching, deadly ark that dug deep into the snake's snout. Needles of black, manifested shadows, tore from every patch of shadowed ground and tree around the snake, puncturing scales and flesh as Shikamaru poured massive amounts of chakra into his technique. Sai unleashed a snake that could almost rival the original and launched it with deadly fangs at the summon. Neji's palm lashed out and struck the air, lacing it with chakra. The created force was enough the unleash a massive wave of compressed air that impacted with the snake's underbelly, leaving a bleeding, palm shaped indent. Lee's ferocious kick drove his leg deep into the snake's eye and Tenten unleashed a storm of electrified weapons against the beast.

It survived the assault for exactly two seconds before it exploded into smoke, retreating into it's realm.

Team 7 more or less sat on the ground, panting. Naruto exhaled loudly. "Oh boy. Are we clear?"

Neji answered him. "No, something's out there. It's too fast to spot."

Sasuke immediately stood up again and surveyed their surroundings with his Sharingan. Indeed, there was something flickering around them, appearing and disappearing every now and then but Sasuke's eyes could pick it up.

"It's the Grass Kunoichi," he hissed.

"I bet you it's actually Orochimaru," Naruto growled, tugging at his blindfold.

"Troublesome," Shikamaru muttered.

"This is not youthful at all!" Lee exclaimed before he suddenly bent to the side, so fast that he couldn't stop himself from hitting the ground.

The tree that had been behind Lee was cleaved clean in half, the upper half catapulted away by the force of whatever had destroyed it in the first place. Hinata and Neji immediately turned into the same direction, looking up into the trees.

* * *

The others fell into formation around the Hyuuga, Naruto Sasuke and Ren at the front with Lee with Shikamaru and Tenten in the row behind them. Neji and Hinata were their eyes at the moment, so they were protected in the center by the rest of them.

"Kukukukuku!" rang the bone chilling laugh though the forest, "My, my! You managed to dispose of my little pet!" Up on the branch of a tree high above the Konoha ninja stood the tall and lithe form of the Grass Kunoichi they had seen in the first exam, the wide hat still on her head. But Naruto, Sasuke, Hinata and Neji could see that this was not some genin. "Now... let's see what else you can do!"

These chakra reserves rivaled the ones of the Hokage but the feel it radiated made Sai and Naruto, as the two sensors among them, sick. It was the stench of death, the sickening madness that rolled off him in waves. The Hyuuga could see that this body was just wrong, they couldn't even place it. Organs did not match, some like the liver, were missing entirely. There were traces of surgery _everywhere_ and a lot of seals of unknown effect littered his skin.

Naruto didn't dare meet the man's eyes. Whatever he could probably see in them just might drive him mad. "Guys?" he whispered, "We can do this. My father and god knows how many ANBU are already on the way."

"Of course we can make it!" Lee exclaimed, but there was a distinct lack of fire to his voice.

"We will prevail," Hinata whispered, her forearms glowing softly as she coated them in her chakra.

Haku exhaled, ice forming at her feet, determined to survive this.

Ren merely drew his sword, bringing his lips to the blade, whispering something Naruto didn't catch just as Tenten unsealed a weapon Naruto couldn't even name with more spike than he had ever seen on a single object.

Shikamaru didn't mutter the word troublesome, but it was almost rolling off his expression as he most likely tried to think of a way to escape this.

"Naruto?" Sasuke said to him, his eyes glowing brightly.

"Yeah?"

"Shut up and let's kick his ass."

"Oh we better," he muttered back just before all hell broke loose.

* * *

 **A/N: DUM DUM DUUUUH!**


	8. Chapter 8

**The Family**

 **Chapter 8**

* * *

Naruto had known that one of the three legendary Sannin would outclass any genin by _at least_ a few worlds but not even he would have imagined the fight to be so... pitifully one-sided. Haku was, as far as Naruto knew, at the upper end of a chunin in sheer combat ability. Therefore it was almost disturbing as he watched her helplessly jump and dodge out of the way of a falling tree that Orochimaru had toppled as if it were nothing. Sasuke and Hinata kept throwing lightning and water jutsu at him but a single blow of a wind jutsu the man used with but one hand seal dispersed the attacks harmlessly. Rock Lee and Ren, arguably the fastest genin to go around, couldn't so much as scratch him. Lee took a backhand that would have catapulted him out of the forest if not for the combined effort of Tenten and Naruto, who were both still thrown back considerable distance as they caught him midair.

Naruto groaned before he pulled himself and Tenten up. Lee was gritting his teeth, which must have hurt a lot, given that his jaw was most definitely broken, bruised as it was. The Uzumaki growled as he watched the others being toyed with. "We need to survive this for long enough. My clone is on it's way to my dad and the Hokage."

Shikamaru slammed into the ground right besides them, nursing probably broken ribs. "He kicked me out of my damn shadows!" he growled though gritted teeth. "Now that is troublesome!"

The roar of one of Sai's ink dragons drowned out the ongoing battle and gave Hinata and Sasuke time to regroup with them. The Hyuuga immediately and without so much of a second glance began mending Lee's and Shikamaru's wounds, as Neji retreated from the fight after he had been backhanded as well. "He's toying with us," she said as calmly as possible, but Naruto could tell that she was shaken.

"Just a bit longer," Naruto promised, "My clone carries a lot of chakra and travels though the dimension in between at every opportunity. It'll take dad right to the seal you carry."

Hinata nodded with a small sigh of relief. Sasuke spat out a mouth full of blood as she finished unleashing a ball of fire at the Snake Sannin. "The bastards looks at me like I'm some kind of snack!" he growled.

"Maybe he has a thing for ducks," Naruto chortled dryly before he threw his sword. "Don't do anything stupid. As long as we entertain him he doesn't seem likely to murder us." He vanished with a small _pop_.

Reappearing just above the tree branch that the Snake Sannin was occupying, he lashed out as hard and fast as he could, only to be met by a flash of steel. A sword had materialized seemingly out of nowhere and sliced clean though Naruto's own weapon. If not for the fact that Ren smashed his own sword full force into Orochimaru's and deviated it's path Naruto would have lost far more than just a few hair. Sasuke barreled with both feet into Orochimaru's side but it merely seemed to amused him. He elbowed Sasuke down and right through the branch just as Tenten with her unsealed spear rushed at the Sannin's head. The arm that had elbowed Sasuke snapped up and the masterfully crafted weapon shattered like glass.

He backhanded Naruto against the tree, which cracked ominously. Sasuke never hit the ground for he substituted with a shattered piece of Tenten's weapon only to be immediately headbutted hard enough to almost make him pass out. Hinata managed a glancing blow at Orochimaru's shoulder before brutally drove his knee into her and thrust his palm flat into Ren's face, breaking his nose with ease. Neji aimed a palmstrike at the Sannin that could have disintegrated a boulder upon contact but the hilt of Orochimaru's sword slammed with crushing force into Neji's wrist, breaking it audibly before grabbing him by the arm and throwing him down towards the ground.

And as everyone was nursing the aftermath of their attacks, Shikamaru was gritting his teeth in concentration, trying his damnedest to use his shadows and bind the Sannin. It had no effect at all. Before Ren even realized that his nose had been broken, Orochimaru vanished from the tree and drove his heel into Shikamaru's gut, sending him flying far though the forest.

"Amusing," the man purred, "but nothing more than that." Orochimaru vanished faster than Sasuke's Sharingan could see and appeared before the Uchiha before the teen could so much as flinch. He grabbed Sasuke's head in a vice like grip and lifted him off the ground with ease. "Oh Sasuke, how delightful to see those wonderful eyes of yours already fully matured. But it seems they aren't quite ripe yet. And neither are you."

Naruto and Hinata were behind Orochimaru not a moment later. "What the hell is he talking about?" he asked her quietly.

Hinata shook her head, keeping her eyes focused on their enemy. "We need to get him away from Sasuke. Whatever he wants, Sasuke is obviously part of it."

"Sounds like a troublesome plan to me," Shikamaru commented dryly as he emerged from Naruto's shadow.

"Neat trick," the Uzumaki observed before he caught sight of Ren and Haku who were preparing another attack with Sai. "Hope you can put it to good use." As the Nara vanished into his shadow again, Naruto could barely duck under Oroachimaru's heel which could probably have beheaded him if it properly connected, all the while he still held Sasuke aloft with one arm. Ren and the others took the chance and moved in.

Tendrils of shadows shot out of every shade and dark spot the canopy above provided, one would have pierced Orochimaru's arm and forced him to release Sasuke. Each and every tendril that shot up around the Sannin erupted into deadly spikes which, upon hitting the predictable nothing as the man dodged, fell away into ink. Said ink swarmed to Orochimaru in form of a million tiny birds with deadly beaks and shuriken of ice and even as they rained down on the Sannin, Ren substituted over and over again with the bird closest to the Sannin in an attempt to cleave him in half while lances of ice erupted at random from Haku's ice weapons.

And as overpowering this attack may have seemed, to Orochimaru it could just as well have been a summer breeze. He batted bird and blade alike away as if it were mere flies that had intruded upon his personal space. Sasuke, with a sizable bruise all over his face in the shape of a hand, had managed to fall back to where Naruto and Hinata tried to think of something while Team Gai prepared to attack with a plan of their own.

"This is ridiculous!" the Uchiha hissed as Hinata gently mended the bruising in his face. "He creeps me out!"

Naruto hastily drew explosive seal after explosive seal, putting them into a shared storage scroll that was connected to one Shikamaru was carrying who set them off almost as fast as Naruto made them while he and Haku assaulted their enemy with a seemingly uneding barrage of ice, sadows and countless explosions. "He wants you, that much is kinda plain obvious."

"Well I don't want him!" Sasuke hissed back, wincing as he pulled on his bruised jaw.

"Hold still," Hinata chided, pulling his head back to face her, "I'm almost done."

 **"Mountain Crusher!"**

A tree was reduced to sawdust by Neji and at least three dozens of deadly weaponry was blown at a huge snake, obviously one of Orochimaru's summons. Said summon had the misfortune of appearing in Orochimaru's stead so it was subjected to the crushing force of Lee's fist. It was driven 40 feet deep into the ground before it vanished in a plume of smoke, which in turn swaned even more angry snakes for Team Gai to fight.

"My my," Orochimaru's voice hissed sweetly from behind Team 7, "One would think you have something against snakes." The man emerged from the tree they were perched on like a horribly deficient appendage. "But no matter. I fear I will have to leave soon."

He took a step forward, so slow and casual as if he'd just walk up to them. Team 7 tensed in anticipation, with his broken blade in front of him in hopes it would have some kind of effect. Team 1 and Haku emerged as one from their allies shadows, with Shikamaru appearing sufficiently ragged. Team Gai was busy dealing with a bunch of summons down at the ground, so they were not about to join them.

Orochimaru kept walking, no one dared to move unless he attacked first. He got closer and closer, Naruto swallowed dryly and wondered if he could take making eye contact with Orochimaru but decided that knocking himself out would probably get him killed before his friends could capitalize on the opening. He heard Hinata take a breath as she directed more chakra into her Byakugan. This was it, there wasn't much to do. Aside from...

 _ **"VOID!"**_ Naruto suddenly bellowed, the effect almost instantaneous.

Orochimaru halted in confusion before is eyes widened considerably. He took a step back just as the sphere of nothingness ground into the tree in front of him. It drew him in like a vortex but the Sannin merely observed it with interest as he kept himself standing on the tree with chakra.

As their opponents vision was obscured, everyone moved at once. Ren and Naruto dove underneath the branch, the latter trying his damnedest to keep the sphere going, and served the limb from the tree in one swift motion. The rest of their friends deployed enough explosives and fire jutsu to blow up half the Hyuuga compound. It all impacted with the tree behind Orochimaru just as the branch was served. The limb was draw into the dimension in between in under a second.

Haku had frozen Orochimaru's feet as best as she could to connect them to the branch before he was blown forwards into the sphere by the massive explosion that obscureed all of their vision.

The black sphere vanished after it drew in all the smoke and left nothing behind but the charred remains of a tree. Naruto was blown down onto the forest ground with a thud, both hands at his temples. He had expelled half of his chakra though his eyes in under one second. The migraine he got from that was steadily worsening and would surely knock him out. The force of the explosion had thrown Ren back hard enough to slam him into a tree where he slid down and remained motionless on one of the branches. Sai and Shikamaru landed besides him, checking how serious his condition was.

Hinata was at Naruto's side seconds after he touched ground. Her Byakugan was telling her all she needed to know. "You won't stay conscious long, Naru," she told him quietly as Sasuke came sto stand a few feet behind her, breathing heavily.

"I know," Naruto groaned, "Just make sure Sasuke doesn't leave me behind."

Hinata giggled. "I will." But Naruto was already out cold.

Shikamaru with Ren on his back landed besides them. "I can't believe something this troublesome actually worked."

Tenten and Lee, both with several bruises and scrapes, landed heavily and exhausted on the floor near one of the biggest trees on their surrounding. "That was most youthful!" Lee told them, though it lacked his usual enthusiasm.

"We were extremely lucky," Neji commented from a branch above them as he was scanning their surroundings. "If he got out of that, he is no longer in my range."

Sai was busy drawing up some transportation for them. "I can not sense him," he told them without looking up.

"Then we best get the hell away from here," Sasuke growled.

Haku merely agreed with him. This had not been what she signed up for. "We should make haste for the tower then," she suggested.

Shikamaru sighed. "We still have to extract our target from a tower not far from here... How troublesome."

Hinata looked at her cousin. "Have you found your target?"

"We have," he confirmed," But she was not fond of running through this forest so we put her into a containment scroll."

"Who?" Sasuke found himself asking.

"Ino," Tenten deadpanned. "How she still manages to be so prim about all this is beyond me. You'd think years of ninja training would have straightened her out."

Sasuke snorted. "Then I guess you have Sakura," he said, looking at Shikamaru.

"Got it in one," the Nara said. "That aside, Ino was one of the best medics, right? Could we unseal her to wake up Ren? Carrying him would be too troublesome."

Ino, as everyone knew, was not pleased about being in the forest. "I swear, you are all so damn reckless!" she grumbled as she checked over their downed friend. "He has a mild concussion. I can fix that. Give me a minute."

Sadly, Naruto could not be woken. Ino even advised that he would refrain from using his eyes until his coils had healed. They were just about to let Ino finally be sealed back into the scroll when a feeling of terror settled in all of them. They knew this pressure, their instincts screaming at them to flee, telling them that there was a predator coming for them.

In the academy, they had been trained to endure this, to endure the Killing Intent of powerful foes. This, as much as it was Killing Intent, was also a far cry from anything they had been subjected to. It was vile, evil, gnawing at their minds, feeding them with visions of death and destruction. It consumed all of them entirely, drowning out the light, keeping the air from their lungs. And yet they forced themselves to move, to face what was coming.

One by one they managed to turn around and cam face to face with the visage of death itself.

Orochimaru had survived, but the price had been steep. His skin was charred, the clothing he had worn had fused with it, both eyes bleeding profoundly. But as wounded as he as, his eyes foretold their end, they prophesied the damnation of their very soul.

"You surprised me," he hissed, the playfulness and mockery was gone from his voice. Instead there was a hard, cold edge and it cut like a blade through their silence. "I have had enough of this." He began to walk forward again, not lazily as before, but with determination, like a predator on the prowl.

Hinata couldn't move a muscle, yet her hands clawed at the unconscious Naruto, who was till leaning against her. This was it, she knew. They were going to die. Shiro wouldn't arrive fast enough. Tears stung her eyes but she couldn't blink them away. With blurry vision, she watched as Orochimaru stalked up to Sasuke and caressed the Uchiha's cheek almost lovingly.

"You have disappointed me," he drawled icily, "No match for you brother," he spat. Hinata could see Sasuke tense and Orochimaru placed his hand on his shoulder and pushed the collar back. He bent down to hiss in Sasuke's ear but Hinata could still hear him. "You are too weak, but I can make you strong. Find me when the time comes." And the Orochimaru bared his fang like teeth and bit into Sasuke's shoulder.

Sasuke's howl of agony had all of them flinch, but they were still paralyzed. Lee strained his every muscle against his own body but nothing more than frustrated grunts cam off it. Orochimaru let Sasuke drop to the ground where he writhed in agony, clutching the wound. The Sannin walked by him as if nothing was amiss. He sirveyed them all with mild interest until he found Hinata and Naruto.

"Ah _yessss_ ," he hissed again, "I have heard of you, jinchuriki." He ignored Hinata's presence entirely as he knelt down at Naruto's side and pushed a lock of white hair out of his face. "Though I have been told you were blonde. Pity that your body won't do." Then his eyes met Hinata's and he smiled a sickeningly sweet smile. "Ah! Would you look at that! An _unsealed_ Hyuuga. Lucky me."

Hinata's insides went cold. Orochimaru's fingers danced over her unmarked forehead, cold like the hand of a corpse, and his smile widened to inhuman proportions. He licked his lips as he leaned forwards and brought a finger close to her eyes, not a hairs breth from touching them. No! No, no, no, NO! This couldn't be happening!

"I think I'll indulge myself after all this trouble," Orochimaru purred into her ear.

Hinata couldn't blink, couldn't turn her head away, she couldn't even scream. She was dimly aware of Neji's strained grunts in the background and of Naruto's weight against her. She pleaded to whatever gods would hear her for a way out before her vision went dark.


End file.
